Fragmentation behavior during molten material and coolant interactions

Abstract

A safe design for a fast breeder reactor (FBR) requires post-accident heat removal (PAHR) for any potential core disruptive accident (CDA). It is important to ensure that the molten core material solidifies in the sodium coolant in the reactor vessel even if all of the core material has melted. In the present experiment, molten material was injected into water to experimentally obtain the information on the molten material jet entering the coolant and its fragmentation. Visual information was obtained with a high-speed video camera, showing that fragmentation behavior on the side of the jet was different from that on the jet front, and that the injection nozzle diameter significantly influenced the jet breakup length, while the molten jet temperature and the coolant temperature did not influence the jet breakup length. Comparison of the diameters of fragments of the solidified molten material thus obtained with fragmentation theory shows that the median fragment diameter is between the critical Weber number theory and the most-unstable wavelength of the instability theory of surface waves at a gas liquid interface. The quench behavior of the molten jet in coolant was calculated for FBR conditions by using the model that reflects actual fragmentation behavior. It was clarified that the mass of molten material in the coolant pool is related to the fragment diameter under FBR conditions.