Simulation of chemical kinetics in sodium-concrete interactions

Sodium-concrete interaction is a key safety-related issue in safety analysis of liquid metal cooled fast breeder reactors (LMFBRs). The chemical kinetics model is a key component of the sodium-concrete interaction model. Conservation equations integrated in sodium-concrete interaction model cannot be solved without a set of re-lationships that couple the equations together, and this may be done by the chemical kinetics model. Simultaneously, simulation of chemical kinetics is difficult due to complexity of the mechanism of chemical reactions between sodium and concrete. This paper describes the chemical kinetics simulation under some hypotheses. The chemical kinetics model was integrated with the conservation equations to form a computer code. Penetration depth, penetration rate, hydrogen flux, reaction heat, etc. can be provided by this code. Theoretical models and computational procedure were recounted in detail. Good agreements of an overall transient behavior were obtained in a series of sodium-concrete interaction experiment analysis. Comparison between analytical and experimental results showed that the chemical kinetics model presented in this paper was creditable and reasonable for simulating the sodium-concrete interactions.

Transient Evolution of Inter Vessel Gap Pressure Due to Relative Thermal Expansion Between Two Vessels

In a typical liquid metal cooled fast breeder reactor (LMFBR), a cylindrical sodium filled main vessel, which carries the internals such as reactor core, pumps, intermediate heat exchangers etc. is surrounded by another vessel called safety vessel. The inter vessel gap is filled with nitrogen. During a thermal transient in the pool sodium, because of the relative delay involved in the thermal diffusion between MV and SV, they are subjected to relative thermal expansion or contraction between them. This in turn results in pressurisation and depressurisation of inter vessel gap nitrogen respectively. In order to obtain the external pressurization for the buckling design of MV, transient thermal models for obtaining the evolutions of MV, SV and inter gap nitrogen temperatures and hence their relative thermal expansion and inter vessel gap pressure have been developed. This paper gives the details of the mathematical model, assumptions made in the calculation and the results of the analysis.