Molecular Approach to Sodium Vapour Condensation, Rewetting and Vaporization in LMFBR Bundle under Hypothetical Accident Conditions

Abstract

In the frame of safety analysis of Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactors (LMFBRs) under hypothetical Unprotected Loss-of-Flow (ULOF) conditions, two phase flow of sodium is simulated in a reactor core. Traditional approaches used in safety analysis codes to simulate sodium vapour condensation and vaporization rely upon application of macroscopic semi-empirical correlations for heat transfer and vapour condensation or evaporation rates. As an alternative to this macroscopic approach, we developed a microscopic methodology based upon the application of the basic laws of the kinetic theory for the determination of the evaporation and condensation rates of vapour in a reactor bundle. This microscopic approach is based upon a Monte Carlo simulation of the molecular trajectories, collision rates between vapour molecules and of the molecules with the surfaces of the claddings of the pins of a reactor bundle. The pins surfaces are treated in the Monte Carlo simulation as diffusely reflecting surfaces. Scattering of sodium particles is simulated with the “hard sphere” collision model. The “step splitting” technique is applied, which consists in separating the collisions dynamic calculation from collisionsless paths of the molecules. Vapour particles are assumed to condense on the surfaces of the pins when, after diffuse reflection, their velocity would be less than one third of the most probable velocity corresponding to the wall temperature. Rewetting of dried out regions of the cladding surfaces is simulated with a dynamic film model which computes the velocity distribution of the liquid across the film thickness and then the mean liquid film velocity. Evaporation of sodium molecules from the film yields a source of molecules which re-enter into the Monte Carlo calculation of the molecular dynamic approach. The coupling of the micro- and macroscopic models has been applied to the numerical simulation of an out-of pile sodium boiling experiment run at the Nuclear Research Center of Karlsruhe, Germany.