Abstract
In the purpose of the design of SFR reactors the CEA is developing codes, which must be validated from experimental data. Since experiments with sodium are complicated, part of the studies is performed on small scale mock-ups using water thanks to the dimensional analysis. In this purpose, the PLATEAU hydraulic loop has been designed and built to provide hydraulic conditions to those mock-ups. This facility has been operated during five years with numerous models characterizing different parts of the reactor and specific issues. The first mock-up, MICAS, representative of the ASTRID upper plenum at a scale 1/6th, provided numerous results about the thermal hydraulic behavior in the vessel. Comparisons to numerical calculations show that the velocities are in good agreement. Regarding the gas entrainment study, the experimental and numerical results do not correlate. The second mock-up at scale 1, DANAH, aims at studying the flow in a sodium gas exchanger for validating CFD calculation and design optimizations. The velocity, measured by PIV and LDV for different geometries, are in good agreement with the numerical results. It allowed further CFD studies for optimizing the design. The third mock-up dealt with sodium fire in case of a pipe breach. It aimed at studying the droplets induced by a jet for implementing a model in a code. The droplet size were measured using the shadowscopy technic for different configurations of the nozzle. The last mock-up was dedicated to study the cavitation in the pump-diagrid pipes. Fast pressure sensors and accelerator gauges were installed at different locations along the pipe. The measurements showed the occurrence of the cavitation from a threshold. Afterthought are in progress to transpose this result to the sodium case. Since, most of these results were obtained on reduced scale mock-up, investigations are in progress to assess their transposition to higher scales, especially to the reactor one.
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