Numerical Simulation of Corium Jet Breakup During Fuel-Coolant Interaction Based on the ALISA Test Performed at KROTOS Test Facility

Abstract

Steam explosion is one of the consequences of fuel-coolant interactions in a severe accident. Melt jet fragmentation, which is the key phenomenon during steam explosion, has not been clarified sufficiently which prevents the precise prediction of steam explosion. The focus of this paper is on the numerical simulation of the melt jet behavior falling into a coolant pool in order to get a qualitative and quantitative understanding of initial premixing stage of fuel-coolant interaction. The objective of our first phase is the simulation of the fragmentation process and the estimation of the jet breakup length. A commercial CFD code COMSOL is used for the 2D numerical analysis employing the phase field method. The simulation condition is similar to our steam explosion test supported by the ALISA (Access to Large Infrastructure for Severe Accidents) project between European Union and China, and carried out in the KROTOS test facility at CEA, France. The simulation result is in relatively good agreement with the experimental data. Then the effect of the initial jet velocity, the jet diameter and the instability theory are presented. The preliminary data of melt jet fragmentation is helpful to understand the premixing stage of the fuel-coolant interaction.