Simulating the mixing of helium and air by mixing saltwater and fresh water in a scaled enclosure

Conference · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1992 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)

OSTI ID:7044057

Chiang, Hsuwen; Jones, S C.A. ^[1]

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1. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Pinawa, Manitoba (Canada)

During some postulated loss-of-coolant accidents in nuclear power plants, hydrogen may be produced and subsequently released through a break in the primary heat transport system to the containment atmosphere. This may lead to the formation of flammable hydrogen/air/steam mixtures. Since the rate of combustion of such a mixture and the associated pressure rise that may impact on the integrity of the containment depend strongly on the composition of the mixture, a knowledge of hydrogen distribution (or the mixing behavior of hydrogen with air or an air/steam mixture) within the containment is important for containment safety analysis. The authors attempted to establish scaling laws to simulate the buoyance and momentum-induced mixing of helium (a simulant for hydrogen) with air in a large-scale enclosure. This would enable the mixing of gases in containment to be assessed through relatively small-scale liquid-mixing experiments. The principal advantage of using the saltwater/ freshwater technique is that it allows mixing behavior within the containment to be assessed in a cost-effective way through a direct visualization of mixing patterns when a proper dye is added to the salt water.

• OSTI ID: 7044057
• Report Number(s): CONF-920606-; CODEN: TANSA
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States), Vol. 65; Conference: American Nuclear Society annual meeting, Boston, MA (United States), 7-12 Jun 1992; ISSN 0003-018X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
42 ENGINEERING
BWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTOR SAFETY EXPERIMENTS
LOSS OF COOLANT
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDRAULICS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
AIR
BRINES
CONTAINMENT SYSTEMS
FLAMMABILITY
FLOW VISUALIZATION
FLUORESCEIN
HELIUM
HYDROGEN
MIXING
PRIMARY COOLANT CIRCUITS
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
REACTOR SAFETY
RELIABILITY
SCALE MODELS
SCALING LAWS
STEAM
ACCIDENTS
AROMATICS
CARBOXYLIC ACIDS
COMBUSTION PROPERTIES
CONTAINMENT
COOLING SYSTEMS
DYES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY TRANSFER
ENGINEERED SAFETY SYSTEMS
ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
FLUID MECHANICS
FLUIDS
GASES
HYDROXY ACIDS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
MECHANICS
NONMETALS
ORGANIC ACIDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PHENOLS
POLYPHENOLS
POWER REACTORS
RARE GASES
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTOR COOLING SYSTEMS
REACTORS
SAFETY
STRUCTURAL MODELS
THERMAL REACTORS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS
220900* - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Reactor Safety
210100 - Power Reactors
Nonbreeding
Light-Water Moderated
Boiling Water Cooled
210200 - Power Reactors
Nonbreeding
Light-Water Moderated
Nonboiling Water Cooled
420400 - Engineering- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow