Study of an improved and novel venturi scrubber configuration for removal of radioactive gases from NPP containment air during severe accident

• Published in: Nuclear engineering and technology Vol. 54; no. 9; pp. 3310 - 3316
• Main Authors: Farooq, Mujahid, Ahmed, Ammar, Qureshi, Kamran, Shah, Ajmal, Waheed, Khalid, Siddique, Waseem, Irfan, Naseem, Ahmad, Masroor, Farooq, Amjad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Korean
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Venturi scrubber; Venturi scrubbers in series; Mass transfer model; Euler-Euler approach; Filtered containment venting system; Iodine removal; Realizable K- ${\varepsilon}$ model
• ISSN: 1738-5733; 2234-358X

Owing to the rising concerns about the safety of nuclear power plants (NPP), it is essential to study the venturi scrubber in detail, which is a key component of the filtered containment venting system (FCVS). FCVS alleviates the pressurein containment byfiltering and venting out the contaminated air. Themain objective of this research was to perform a CFD investigation of different configurations of a circular, non-submerged, self-priming venturi scrubber to estimate and improve the performance in the removal of elemental iodine from the air. For benchmarking, a mass transfer model which is based on two-film theory was selected and validated by experimental data where an alkaline solution was considered as the scrubbing solution. This mass transfer model was modified and implemented on a unique formation of two self-priming venturi scrubbers in series. Euler-Euler method was used for two-phase modeling and the realizable K-ε model was used for capturing the turbulence. The obtained results showed a remarkable improvement in the removal of radioactive iodine from the air using a series combination of venturi scrubbers. The removal efficiency was improved at every single data point.