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The study of turbulent flows evolving in a stable stratified place interests a large number of safety issues. For IRSN, an important issue concerns the risk of accumulation of hydrogen in the upper part of the nuclear containment mainly from the oxidation of the zircaloy alloy under the effect of buoyancy. The risk of explosion can be reduced if the concentration levels of hydrogen are lowered under the effect of turbulent mixing. In this context, IRSN participates in the validation of CFD codes for the prediction of erosion of stratification by a turbulent jet. The results show that standard RANS first order turbulence models are insufficient in predicting the proper turbulent mixing of the stratification. Use of LES for such large scale experiments appears prohibitive. Hence, a hybrid RANS/LES approach is carried on.

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