Jet Breakup Behavior With Surface Solidification

Abstract

When a hypothetical Core Disruptive Accident (CDA) occurs in Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR), it is strongly required that the molten core material can be solidified and cooled down by the sodium coolant in a reactor vessel. In order to estimate whether the molten material jet is completely solidified by sodium coolant, it is necessary to understand the interaction between the molten core material and the coolant. The objectives of the present study are to clarify the correlation of the jet breakup and fragmentation behavior and the dominant factors of both behaviors considering surface solidification. In order to investigate the influence of surface solidification on jet breakup and fragmentation behavior, experiments under surface solidification and liquid-liquid contact condition are conducted. Although the molten material jet is fragmented with each condition, jet breakup and fragmentation behaviors on each condition are different. In addition, when the surface solidification occurs, there is possibility that the material strength of solidified crust on the surface affects jet breakup and fragmentation behaviors. Then, numerical calculation based on hydrodynamics and material mechanics is conducted to evaluate the influence of the material strength on jet breakup and fragmentation behaviors. In comparison with the numerical estimation and mass median diameters obtained from experimental results, the effect of solidification on jet breakup and fragmentation behavior of molten material jet is discussed.