Study on Solid-Liquid Two-Phase Flow on PWR Sump Clogging Issue

Abstract

It has been a concern that sump screen clogging would occur in pressurized water reactors (PWRs) in the case of a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA), because two-phase jet flow would strip off thermal insulation from the piping and wash down the broken and fragmented debris to sump screens. It is necessary for the evaluation of the effectiveness of sump screens to estimate the amount of transported debris from a break position to sumps. In general, conservative logic trees have been used to determine debris transport rates. Realistic debris transport evaluation is useful for considering measures and rational decision making in licensing. The purpose of this study is to develop a debris transport evaluation model and to apply the model to this issue. We developed a solid-liquid multiphase model that is capable of simulating debris transport, settling, and resuspension. The model is able to treat solid particles of different sizes, which are smaller than uniform-sized liquid particles. This approach contributes to reducing the calculation cost in a large-scale simulation. The model and a turbulence model were implemented into a code based on the moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) method. Several open-channel hydraulic experiments with fibrous debris were conducted. The code named SANSUI 2.0 was validated by the comparison of the analytical results with experiments. This method was applied to the debris transport analysis of a full-scale PWR containment vessel floor, and the debris transport behavior was evaluated.