Author(s)

Jiaju Zhou¹, Hideharu Takahashi¹, Nobuyoshi Tsuzuki², Hiroshige Kikura¹

¹Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan.
²The Institute of Applied Energy, Tokyo, Japan.

Flow behavior was observed in a simplified model cavity of a multiphase High Level Liquid Waste (HLLW) reprocessing glass melter. Electrodes were set to generate Joule-heating flow in the cavity. A chaotic flow occurred because the lower part of the cavity was heated while the top surface of the cavity was cooled. Downflow and upflow occurred alternately in cavities. The shape of the cavity was a sloping bottom cavity, which was similar in shape to the real glass melter. To know the flow behavior in the cavity, 1-D flow behavior and 2-D flow behavior were measured in an experiment and simulated by an original CFD code. In the sloping bottom cavity, chaotic flow occurred in the upper part of the cavity. In the case of the sloping bottom cavity which had the same set of electrodes as the glass melter, the effect of the downflow near the electrodes decreased. The same phenomena could be predicted in the melter. The experimental results were also used to validate the CFD code, which will be helpful for developing a multiphase Joule-heating flow predicting.

Joule-Heating Flow, Chaotic Flow, UVP, GSMAC, Glass Melter

Zhou, J. , Takahashi, H. , Tsuzuki, N. and Kikura, H. (2018) Investigation of Flow Behavior of Joule-Heating Flow in a 2-D Model of a Reprocessing Glass Melter Cavity. Journal of Flow Control, Measurement & Visualization, 6, 199-216. doi: 10.4236/jfcmv.2018.64016.