Experimental Investigation of Melt Coolability Under Bottom Injection: Effects of Melt Volume, Melt Composition, Nozzle Diameter, and Inlet Pressure

Singh, Nitendra; Nayak, Arun K.; Kulkarni, Parimal P.

doi:10.1080/00295450.2017.1305764

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Due to the direct injection of water at the bottom into the melt pool, porous debris is created, which increases the effective melt-water interaction area, thus quenching the melt pool significantly. 26 The efficacy of melt pool coolability by the bottom flooding was also demonstrated in the COMET experimental series. [27][28][29][30] The COMET experimental series demonstrated the improvement in melt pool coolability even at the plant scale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Experimental investigations on melt coolability with simulated decay heat—The influence of delay time in flooding

2021

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The primary objective of core catchers is to minimize the potential risk of core meltdown by stabilization and cooling of molten corium within the reactor containment for a prolonged period by strategically cooling it. Quenching of the high-temperature melt by top flooding strongly depends on the timing of injection of the cooling water, that is, immediate flooding or delayed flooding. To understand this aspect, we conducted experiments in a simulated core catcher of an Indian advanced nuclear reactor. In the experiments, sodium borosilicate glass, as a mixture of corium and sacrificial material simulant, was melted at about 1200°C and cooled by water from the side of a simulated core catcher and then flooding at the top of the melt pool. Two experiments were conducted; the first one was done with immediate flooding at the top of the melt pool; the second was performed with delayed top flooding of 45 min gap. The results show that immediate flooding quenches the melt pool rapidly compared to delayed flooding. A stable crust formation at the top of the melt pool and wall adhesion is observed in the delayed flooding. It was also found that no ingression of the water in the molten pool occurred with delayed flooding. On the other hand, with immediate flooding, water was found to ingress into the melt pool due to gap formations between melt and core catcher sidewall, causing the melt to break up through eruption by ingressed water. This phenomenon resulted in the formation of sand-type debris and in faster melt cooling.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Experimental investigations on melt coolability with simulated decay heat—The influence of delay time in flooding

2021

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“…Various experiments have been carried with the support of prototype and non-prototype material. Some non-prototype materials are adversely used in the past scenario as a simulant material to study the severe accident [2]. The concept of melt coolability was validated by using up to hundred kilograms of simulant material and corium melt at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe and Argonne National Laboratory in COMMET experimental series [3][4][5][6][7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of composition on thermal stability and microstructural behaviour of non-prototype material (CaO-Fe2O3)

Pandey¹,

Jatav²,

Pandel³

et al. 2021

JMES

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The role of simulant materials becomes necessary for the predictive study of the nuclear severe accident phenomena due to its similarity with corium (a liquid form of UO2 and steel). Since simulant material is eco-friendly and has similar properties to corium, it has been widely used in the research field of severe accident management. In this study, material CaO-Fe2O3 a non-eutectic binary mixture is considered for characterization purpose to address the thermophysical properties at different compositional ratios. The CaO-Fe2O3 powder mixture was prepared in mortar for 40 minutes manually to form a homogeneous mixture and then cylindrical pellets prepared at five different ratios with the help of the phase diagram. Further, these pellets were heat-treated at 1200°C for three hours soaking time to address its thermal stability in a programmable electric furnace. Finally, pellets ground into powder form manually for further characterization. Initially, the weight loss analysis was reported by measurement of dimensions of pellets before and after heat treatment. The thermal properties, phase analysis, and morphological studies have been carried out through DSC, XRD and FE-SEM in laboratory and results were discussed in the context of the property of ideal simulant materials used for the study of nuclear severe accidents. The melting point of all the samples were found stable (1200°C-1230°C) and values of activation energy and specific heat were well synchronized between with and without heat-treated samples. Dislocation density of samples increases significantly with increasing the proportion value of calcium oxide after heat treatment.

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“…The ceramics/glass type materials such as sodium borosilicate glass, CaO-B 2 O 3 , CaO-TiO 2 , Bi 2 O 3 -TiO 2 and CaO-WO 2 etc. were used in the past melt coolabilityexperimets [2][3][4][5]. The simulant material is the material which have the thermo-physical properties similar or close to the properties of corium.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermo-Physical Properties of CaO-Fe2O3 Binary Mixture and its Application in the Field of Nuclear Reactor as Simulant Material

Jatav¹,

Pandey²,

Pandel³

et al. 2020

IJEAT

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 Abstract: The simulant materials play important role in the melt coolability experiments to understand the actual scenarios of core melt accidents in the field of nuclear reactor. Simulant materials are generally oxide/ceramics materials which have the properties similar to the properties of corium (mixture of UO 2 , ZrO 2 , Zr alloy, Fe, Ni and Cr etc.). This work was carried out to determine the the properties of corium. It was observed that the thermo-physical properties of CaO-Fe 2 O 3 binary mixture are close to the properties of corium, so it can be said that this material is simulant material. In this research work, thermal behavior of CaO-Fe 2 O 3 was also carried out using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The simulant material CaO-Fe 2 O 3 can be used in the melt coolability experiment to understand the phenomena that happened during the core melt accidents in the nuclear reactor.

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Experimental Investigation of Melt Coolability Under Bottom Injection: Effects of Melt Volume, Melt Composition, Nozzle Diameter, and Inlet Pressure

Cited by 10 publications

References 11 publications

Experimental investigations on melt coolability with simulated decay heat—The influence of delay time in flooding

Experimental investigations on melt coolability with simulated decay heat—The influence of delay time in flooding

Effect of composition on thermal stability and microstructural behaviour of non-prototype material (CaO-Fe2O3)

Thermo-Physical Properties of CaO-Fe2O3 Binary Mixture and its Application in the Field of Nuclear Reactor as Simulant Material

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