Direct in-vessel applications experiments at Harvard Air Cleaning Laboratory. Annual report, October 1, 1975--January 31, 1977. [Removal of LMFBR sodium fire aerosols

Abstract

Prototypes of direct in-vessel emergency air cleaning systems were evaluated for possible application in an LMFBR containment vessel after a hypothetical core disruptive accident. These were turbulence enhanced sedimentation, powder dispersal scavenging, acoustic agglomeration enhanced sedimentation, and combinations of turbulence with powder dispersal. The effect of turbulent agglomeration in enhancing the sedimentation of a sodum pool fire aerosol was experimentally demonstrated in a 90 m/sup 3/ test chamber, 4 meters high. Two hour dose reduction factors (DRF(2 hr)) from 7 to 56 were achieved in the 4 meter high chamber using fan-induced turbulent agglomeration on aerosols that varied in initial mass concentration from 1 to 12 gm/m/sup 3/. In the same chamber, a prototype limestone powder dispersal scavenging system was tested and achieved DRF(2 hr)'s up to 10. The beneficial effect of combining turbulence with powder dispersal in a single system was demonstrated in a test which yielded a DRF(2 hr) of 20. This was greater than for either mechanism separately applied when initial aerosol mass concentration was 2 gm/m3. Acoustic agglomeration of sodium pool fire aerosols was tested in a smaller 0.65 m/sup 3/, 75 cm high settling chamber, using an electronic siren which produced a sound pressure level of 145 dB in the reverberant chamber. The DRF(2 hr) in the small chamber with the siren operating was found to be from 17 to 31, 2 to 3 times greater than the DRF(2 hr) for unperturbed settling. Pulse-jet engines were found to be unsuitable for generating high sound levels for this application. Scaling each of the systems tested to a 30 m high containment vessel indicated no reason why one or more of the systems investigated could not be applied successfully as an emergency air cleaning system.