Coolability of Particle Beds: Examination and Influence of Friction Laws
- Institute of Nuclear Technology and Energy Systems (IKE), University of Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 31, 70569 Stuttgart (Germany)
In the very unlikely case of a severe accident in a light water reactor, the core may melt and be relocated to the lower plenum of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). In contact with residual water, the melt jet will fragment, and then settle as particulate debris. This may happen either in the RPV, or, after vessel failure, ex-vessel in the cavity. For safety analyses, it is important to investigate coolability limits (dryout phenomena) based on the vapour removal and various kinds of water inflow into the bed. Analyses based on one-dimensional top flooding configurations strongly underestimate the coolability of realistic multi-dimensional configurations, where lateral water access and water inflow via bottom regions are favoured. Adequate descriptions especially for the friction laws in co-, as well as in counter-current flow situations, are thus required in the codes. The DEBRIS experiments at IKE are especially designed to allow checking and elaboration of these local exchange laws. The necessity for explicit consideration of the interfacial drag is experimentally shown and applied in the WABE-2D code to a typical ex-vessel debris configuration. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21160749
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICAPP'04: 2004 international congress on advances in nuclear power plants, Pittsburgh, PA (United States), 13-17 Jun 2004; Other Information: Country of input: France; 12 refs; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 2004 international congress on advances in nuclear power plants - ICAPP'04, 2338 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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