Thermally induced natural convection effects in Yucca Mountain drifts.
Thermally induced natural convection from the heat produced by emplaced waste packages is an important heat and mass transfer mechanism within the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) drifts. Various models for analyzing natural convection have been employed. The equivalent porous medium approach using Darcy's law has been used in many YMP applications. However, this approach has questionable fidelity, especially for turbulent flow conditions. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which is based on the fundamental Navier-Stokes equations, is currently being evaluated as a technique to calculate thermally induced natural convection in YMP. Data-model comparisons for turbulent flow conditions show good agreement of CFD predictions with existing experiments including YMP-specific data.
Webb
Stephen W
SW
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA. swwebb@sandia.gov
Francis
Nicholas D
ND
Dunn
Sandra Dalvit
SD
Itamura
Michael T
MT
James
Darryl L
DL
D018481:Convection; D005544:Forecasting; D055593:Geological Phenomena; D005844:Geology; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009505:Nevada; D011850:Radioactive Waste; D012037:Refuse Disposal; D013696:Temperature
D011850:Radioactive Waste