Abstract
Steam explosion is one of the crucial and poorly understood phenomena which may occur during severe accident scenario and may lead to containment failure. In spite of several experimental and analytical studies, the root cause of steam explosion has not been understood. Recent claims in the literature suggest that the presence of fine fragmentation during steam explosion causes its occurrence. In order to investigate this and understand the root cause of steam explosion, series of experiments were performed with 50 g to 2500 g of CaO-B2O3, a corium simulant in 4.5 litre of water. It was observed that steam explosion may occur even in the absence of fine fragments, which is contrary to the claims in the literature. To investigate further, conversion efficiency analysis was performed. This suggested that the amount of thermal energy converted to mechanical energy is more important deciding factor in explaining the occurrence of steam explosion. The present study discusses the importance of conversion efficiency in deciding steam explosion and also gives a new perspective to look at steam explosion phenomenology.
Highlights
Nuclear industry always strives for safety of power plants during normal operation as well during accidental scenarios
Steam explosion is one of the crucial and poorly understood phenomena which may occur during severe accident scenario and may lead to containment failure
The present study discusses the importance of conversion efficiency in deciding steam explosion and gives a new perspective to look at steam explosion phenomenology
Summary
Nuclear industry always strives for safety of power plants during normal operation as well during accidental scenarios. Steam explosion has been studied intensively for a few decades mainly with a focus as the premixing phase of energetic steam explosions [5]-[10] They suggest that the melt will undergo coarse and fine fragmentation during the interaction of melt with water. They observed steam explosions with alumina but not with corium due to difference in fragmentation behaviour. All these experiments were performed in two different facilities having two different test set-ups for smaller and higher melt masses
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