On the possible role of thermal radiation in containment thermal–hydraulics experiments by the example of CFD analysis of TOSQAN T114 air–He test

•Neglecting by heat radiation in simulation of containment tests may cause discrepancies.•To show that, heat exchange in T114 air-helium test was analyzed in different ways.•Effect of thermal radiation on local temperature was numerically obtained in air with ∼1% steam content.•Model of gas-structure heat exchange in containment should include heat radiation. One of the experiments of ERCOSAM–SAMARA (E–S) projects (TOSQAN T114) is examined from the viewpoint of the radiative heat transfer (RHT) contribution to the overall heat exchange. E–S projects and T114 test were focused on investigation of light gas stratification in severe accident containment atmosphere and stratification break-up after the activation of mitigation systems. The first from two phases of T114 test is considered during which helium is quasistatically injected into the upper part of the TOSQAN vessel having isothermal walls and initially filled by air. The developing free convection removes most of the heat acquired, but not all. Thus stable local deviations in calculated temperatures were obtained in simulations that were interpreted as the deficiencies of the physical heat-transfer model. The modeling of RHT was included in full CFD simulation that resulted in a better agreement in local temperatures. The results of comparative calculations performed without/with RHT modeling are described in the paper. The RHT model implemented in the used CFD code (ANSYS FLUENT) was tested on known analytical solutions. The RHT contribution in T114 test was also estimated analytically to demonstrate independently that it may be noticeable in this experiment. The same estimations may be valid for stagnant zones of severe accident containment. All that shows the need in further detailing of the role of RHT in gas-structure heat exchange: as for interpretation of some containment tests performed in pressure vessel as for containment modeling.