DOE OSTI2011
The process of recovering and processing High Level Waste (HLW) the waste in storage tanks at the Savannah River Site (SRS) typically requires mixing the contents of the tank with one to four mixers (pumps) located within the tank. The typical criteria to establish a mixed condition in a tank are based on the number of pumps in operation and the time duration of operation. To ensure that a mixed condition is achieved, operating times are typically set conservatively long. This approach results in high operational costs because of the long mixing times and high maintenance and repair costs for the same reason. A significant reduction in both of these costs might be realized by reducing the required mixing time based on calculating a reliable indicator of mixing with a suitably validated computer code. The focus of the present work is to establish mixing criteria applicable to miscible fluids, with an ultimate goal of addressing waste processing in HLW tanks at SRS and quantifying the mixing time required to suspend sludge particles with the submersible jet pump. A single-phase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach was taken for the analysis of jet flow patterns with an emphasis on the velocity decay and the turbulent flow evolution for the farfield region from the pump. Literature results for a turbulent jet flow are reviewed, since the decay of the axial jet velocity and the evolution of the jet flow patterns are important phenomena affecting sludge suspension and mixing operations. The work described in this report suggests a basis for further development of the theory leading to the identified mixing indicators, with benchmark analyses demonstrating their consistency with widely accepted correlations. Although the indicators are somewhat generic in nature, they are applied to Savannah River Site (SRS) waste tanks to provide a better, physically based estimate of the required mixing time. Waste storage tanks at SRS contain settled sludge which varies in height from zero to 10 ft. The sludge has been characterized and modeled as micron-sized solids, typically 1 to 5 microns, at weight fractions as high as 20 to 30 wt%, specific gravities to 1.4, and viscosities up to 64 cp during motion. The sludge is suspended and mixed through the use of submersible slurry jet pumps. To suspend settled sludge, water is added to the tank as a slurry medium and stirred with the jet pump. Although there is considerable technical literature on mixing and solid suspension in agitated tanks, very little literature has been published on jet mixing in a large-scale tank. One of the main objectives in the waste processing is to provide feed of a uniform slurry composition at a certain weight percentage (e.g. typically {approx}13 wt% at SRS) over an extended period of time. In preparation of the sludge for slurrying, several important questions have been raised with regard to sludge suspension and mixing of the solid suspension in the bulk of the tank: (1) How much time is required to prepare a slurry with a uniform solid composition? (2) How long will it take to suspend and mix the sludge for uniform composition in any particular waste tank? (3) What are good mixing indicators to answer the questions concerning sludge mixing stated above in a general fashion applicable to any waste tank/slurry pump geometry and fluid/sludge combination?
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗