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The risk and consequences of vapor explosion during severe accidents are among the most critical safety problems to be considered in next-generation sodium-cooled fast reactors. The melt of the core material (corium) may be produced in the event of inadequate core cooling and/or during Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) leading to Core Disruptive Accident (CDA). Corium displacement can then lead to powerful fuel-coolant interactions (FCIs). One of the consequences of this molten corium-coolant interaction is that vapor formation and hence explosion may occur. Due to the problem complexity, only hydrodynamic effects of the multiphase system of a single-droplet vapor explosion phenomenon, without heat transfer, is considered. The present study focuses on simulating a molten droplet pre-conditioning (deformation before breakup) through the early stages of the molten fuel coolant interaction. In order to efficiently capture the melt-sodium interfaces and predict droplet behavior with appropriate mass conservation, calculations were conducted using the CFD code of STAR CCM+ for several melt coolant two-phase system configurations. The results demonstrate that the melt properties and velocity are the dominant factors on the melt droplet pre-conditioning behavior.

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