Steam explosion is one of the crucial and poorly understood phenomena which may occur during severe accident scenario and may lead to containment failure. In spite of several experimental and analytical studies, the r...Steam explosion is one of the crucial and poorly understood phenomena which may occur during severe accident scenario and may lead to containment failure. In spite of several experimental and analytical studies, the root cause of steam explosion has not been understood. Recent claims in the literature suggest that the presence of fine fragmentation during steam explosion causes its occurrence. In order to investigate this and understand the root cause of steam explosion, series of experiments were performed with 50 g to 2500 g of CaO-B<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>, a corium simulant in 4.5 litre of water. It was observed that steam explosion may occur even in the absence of fine fragments, which is contrary to the claims in the literature. To investigate further, conversion efficiency analysis was performed. This suggested that the amount of thermal energy converted to mechanical energy is more important deciding factor in explaining the occurrence of steam explosion. The present study discusses the importance of conversion efficiency in deciding steam explosion and also gives a new perspective to look at steam explosion phenomenology.展开更多
Determination of turbulent mixing rate of two phase flow between neighboring subchannels is an important aspect of sub channel analysis in reactor rod bundles. Various models have been developed for two phase turbulen...Determination of turbulent mixing rate of two phase flow between neighboring subchannels is an important aspect of sub channel analysis in reactor rod bundles. Various models have been developed for two phase turbulent mixing rate between subchannels. These models show that turbulent mixing rate is strongly dependent on flow regimes;their validity was examined against specific or limited experiments. It is vital to evaluate these models by comparing the predicted two phase turbulent mixing rate with available experimental data conducted for various subchannel geometries and operating conditions. This paper describes evaluation of different models for two phase turbulent mixing rate for both gas and liquid phase against large range of experimental data which are obtained from various subchannel geometries. The results indicate that there is large discrepancy between the predicted and experimental data for turbulent mixing rate. This paper provides important shortcoming of the previous work and need for the development of a new model. In the view of this, a two phase flow model is presented, which predicts both liquid and gas phase turbulent mixing rate between adjacent sub channels of reactor rod bundles. The model presented here is for slug churn flow regime, which is dominant as compared to the other regimes like bubbly flow and annular flow regimes, since turbulent mixing rate is the highest in slug churn flow regime. The present model has been tested against low pressure and temperature air-water and high pressure and temperature steam-water experimental data found that it shows good agreement with available experimental data.展开更多
文摘Steam explosion is one of the crucial and poorly understood phenomena which may occur during severe accident scenario and may lead to containment failure. In spite of several experimental and analytical studies, the root cause of steam explosion has not been understood. Recent claims in the literature suggest that the presence of fine fragmentation during steam explosion causes its occurrence. In order to investigate this and understand the root cause of steam explosion, series of experiments were performed with 50 g to 2500 g of CaO-B<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>, a corium simulant in 4.5 litre of water. It was observed that steam explosion may occur even in the absence of fine fragments, which is contrary to the claims in the literature. To investigate further, conversion efficiency analysis was performed. This suggested that the amount of thermal energy converted to mechanical energy is more important deciding factor in explaining the occurrence of steam explosion. The present study discusses the importance of conversion efficiency in deciding steam explosion and also gives a new perspective to look at steam explosion phenomenology.
文摘Determination of turbulent mixing rate of two phase flow between neighboring subchannels is an important aspect of sub channel analysis in reactor rod bundles. Various models have been developed for two phase turbulent mixing rate between subchannels. These models show that turbulent mixing rate is strongly dependent on flow regimes;their validity was examined against specific or limited experiments. It is vital to evaluate these models by comparing the predicted two phase turbulent mixing rate with available experimental data conducted for various subchannel geometries and operating conditions. This paper describes evaluation of different models for two phase turbulent mixing rate for both gas and liquid phase against large range of experimental data which are obtained from various subchannel geometries. The results indicate that there is large discrepancy between the predicted and experimental data for turbulent mixing rate. This paper provides important shortcoming of the previous work and need for the development of a new model. In the view of this, a two phase flow model is presented, which predicts both liquid and gas phase turbulent mixing rate between adjacent sub channels of reactor rod bundles. The model presented here is for slug churn flow regime, which is dominant as compared to the other regimes like bubbly flow and annular flow regimes, since turbulent mixing rate is the highest in slug churn flow regime. The present model has been tested against low pressure and temperature air-water and high pressure and temperature steam-water experimental data found that it shows good agreement with available experimental data.
