Numerical method development for oxidation particle formation during sodium spray fires in SFR containment

Abstract

A new method was developed to predict particle generation during sodium spray fire by combining the spray combustion models and the classical nucleation theory. 224 data points calculated in the evaluation process show that the influence of oxygen concentration and temperature on the particle formation can be almost neglected when the sodium droplet mean diameter is less than 0.2 cm though observed data and the spray droplet diameter has the greatest effect on particle generation among them. Subsequently, the correlation between particle generation number and sodium burning rate can be obtained by fitting method as well as the conversion between the particle number and mass. The calculation results of the code with and without this method show that the predicted thermal-hydraulic responses, suspended aerosol concentration and particle distribution agree well with the experimental data in both cases, which shows the reliability of the particle generation method developed in this work.