Study on thermal-hydraulic behavior during molten material and coolant interaction

In a core disruptive accident (CDA) of a Fast Breeder Reactor, the post accident heat removal (PAHR) is crucial for the accident mitigation. The molten core material should be solidified in the sodium coolant in the reactor vessel. The material, being fragmented while solidification and forming debris bed, will be cooled in the coolant. In the experiment, molten material jet is injected into water to experimentally obtain the visualized information of the fragmentation and boiling phenomena during PAHR in CDA. The experiment shows that the break up of the molten material into fine fragments is observed at the front, side and middle part of the jet during very short time interval. The distributed particle behavior of the molten material jet is observed with high-speed video camera. And the visual data is analyzed with Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV). The experimental results are compared with the existing theories. Consequently, the marginal wavelength on the surface of a water jet is close to the value estimated based on the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Moreover, the fragmented droplet diameter obtained from the interaction of molten material and water is close to the value estimated based on the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.