In an extreme situation, as happened in Fukushima nuclear power plant, the failure of multiple safety systems may lead to severe core damage and melt relocation. This may be accompanied by production of large amount of steam which may result in the over-pressurization of the containment. Another associated concern is that the exposed core melt is highly radioactive which if exposed to the atmosphere can ruthlessly deteriorate the quality of environment and living beings. The radioactive materials present in the containment can be in vapor form or aerosol form. The containment of a nuclear power plant is therefore the final shielding to prevent the release of radioactive products to the environment. Therefore, the installation of Filtered Containment Venting system (FCVS) is mandatory in a nuclear reactor which actuates passively to depressurize the containment. Additionally it assists in the retention of radionuclides in the containment.
The FCVS consists of venturi scrubbers submerged in a pool of scrubbing liquid along with a demister housed in a scrubber tank. The performance of venturi scrubber is dependent on the interaction of the contaminated air stream from the nuclear reactor with the scrubbing liquid. This represents a multi-field and multi-fluid system. The present analysis investigates this system through a computational framework in which air stream is solved using Eulerian framework while the scrubbing liquid is tracked through Lagrangian framework. The collection efficiency of aerosols is modeled assuming impaction to be the predominant mechanism.
