University Reactor Matching Grants Program

During the 2002 Fiscal year, funds from the DOE matching grant program, along with matching funds from the industrial sponsors, have been used to support research in the area of thermal-hydraulics. Both experimental and numerical research projects have been performed. Experimental research focused on two areas: (1) Identification of the root cause mechanism for axial offset anomaly in pressurized water reactors under prototypical reactor conditions, and (2) Fluid dynamic aspects of thin liquid film protection schemes for inertial fusion reactor chambers. Numerical research focused on two areas: (1) Multi-fluid modeling of both two-phase and two-component flows for steam conditioning and mist cooling applications, and (2) Modeling of bounded Rayleigh-Taylor instability with interfacial mass transfer and fluid injection through a porous wall simulating the ''wetted wall'' protection scheme in inertial fusion reactor chambers. Details of activities in these areas are given