Energy transfer and interaction between liquid metal with water

Abstract

The interactions and energy transfer between liquid metal and water are of great research value in developing and utilizing clean energy (solar and nuclear). Understanding how much energy transfer exists in interactions and the consequences of these interactions is crucial for ensuring the stability of energy development and response measures in case of accidents, especially in third-generation ultra-high temperature concentrated solar power and fourth-generation nuclear energy systems. In this paper, a jet visualization test was performed to investigate the interaction characteristics of liquid metal with water. We found that the energy transfer between liquid metals and water is constrained, distinguishing three distinct pressurization modes due to mass transfer, while also developing an energy transfer model for liquid metals. First, the visualization data show that liquid metal-water interaction consists of four stages: coarse mixing, large steam bubble expansion and fragmentation, direct contact and bubble migration. This process is accompanied by the splashing of metal droplets and shaking of the free liquid surface. Furthermore, the water escapes from the melt pool under some conditions, and modal boiling occurs at the surface of the melt pool, hindering heat exchange. Subsequently, three cover gas pressurization modes were distinguished according to the different interactions of liquid metal with water. Finally, based on the perspective of restricted energy transfer, the liquid metal temperature drop model was established, and there is an appropriate matching between the model and test data with ±20 % uncertainty.