Add a Component to THM with a Mass Source Term

[tanoret]

Reason

For domain overlapping approach in transient compressible problems the mass flow rate at the inlet and outlet of the overlapped domain may not be the same. A mass source term is needed in the overlapped THM component this mass imbalance between inlet and outlet can be reproduced.

Design

Create a new component in THM that can take an external mass source term defined by a postprocessor.

Impact

This will allow us to couple THM with higher-fidelity CFD or subchannel simulations for transient compressible or weakly-compressible flow.

[joshuahansel]

I don't understand the greater context still. It just seems screwy to add mass like this. So you have some loop model in THM, and in the core section, you overlap with Pronghorn because you want to increase the fidelity of that section. What do you transfer to and from Pronghorn? I'm trying to figure out why you would want to add mass like this - why it would make your quantity of interest more accurate? For example, if you have a closed loop in THM and not in Pronghorn, I could see this term as adding mass continually to the THM loop.