Numerical Investigation of High-temperature Molten Salt Leakage

Abstract

Abstract As molten salt has been widely used in solar thermal power and nuclear power system, its leakage was an important problem. In this paper, the high-temperature molten salt leakage is simulated by considering the effects of phase change and flow dynamics. During the molten salt leakage process, the liquid molten salt is cooled by the ground and air, so it will solidify, and then a thin solidification layer of molten salt forms. The whole high-temperature molten salt leakage process consists of three subprocesses: spreading process, stable solid front formation process and solidification process after leakage. According to the simulation result, the radius of the leakage opening mainly affects the radius of nitrate solidification layer, while the leakage temperature and the leakage velocity will influence both the radius and thickness of salt layer. Besides, different kinds of molten salt are also considered, and the radius of molten salt solidification layer with SYSU-N1 is smaller than that with Solar Salt.