CFD ANALYSIS ON PIPE BEND FLOWS

One problem facing today’s nuclear power industry is flow-accelerated corrosion and erosion in pipe elbows. The simulations are being performed using the FLUENT commercial software developed and marketed by Fluent, Inc. The model geometry and mesh were created using the ANSYS software, also from Fluent, Inc. This report documents the results of the simulations that have been made to date; baseline results employing the RNG k-ε turbulence model are presented. The predicted value for the diametrical pressure coefficient is in reasonably good agreement with published correlations. Plots of the velocities, pressure field, wall shear stress, and turbulent kinetic energy adjacent to the wall are shown within the elbow section.