DEMONSTRATION OF MIXING AND TRANSFERRING SETTLING COHESIVE SLURRY SIMULANTS IN THE AY-102 TANK
In support of Hanford's feed delivery of high level waste (HLW) to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), pilot-scale testing and demonstrations with simulants containing cohesive particles were performed as a joint collaboration between Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) staff. The objective of the demonstrations was to determine the impact that cohesive particle interactions in the simulants, and the resulting non-Newtonian rheology, have on tank mixing and batch transfer of large and dense seed particles. The work addressed the impacts cohesive simulants have on mixing and batch transfer performance in a pilot-scale system. Kaolin slurries with a range of wt% concentrations to vary the Bingham yield stress were used in all the non-Newtonian simulants. To study the effects of just increasing the liquid viscosity (no yield stress) on mixing and batch transfers, a glycerol/water mixture was used. Stainless steel 100 micron particles were used as seed particles due to their density and their contrasting color to the kaolin and glycerol. In support of Hanford's waste certification and delivery of tank waste to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) was tasked by Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) to evaluate the effectiveness of mixing and transferring tank waste in a Double Shell Tank (DST) to the WTP Receipt Tank. The work addresses the impacts cohesive simulants have on mixing and batch transfer performance. This work is follow-on to the previous tasks 'Demonstration of Mixer Jet Pump Rotational Sensitivity on Mixing and Transfers of the AY-102 Tank' and 'Demonstration of Simulated Waste Transfers from Tank AY-102 to the Hanford Waste Treatment Facility'. The cohesive simulants were investigated and selected jointly by SRNL and PNNL and a white paper was written on this evaluation. The testing and demonstrations of cohesive simulants was a joint effort performed as collaboration between SRNL and PNNL staff. The objective of the demonstrations was to determine the impact that cohesive particle interactions in the simulants have on tank mixing using the 1/22nd scale mixing system and batch transfer of seed particles. Seed particles are particles of contracting color added to mixing tank for visual inspection and an indicator of how well the contents of the tank are mixing. Also the seed particles serve as a measuring stick for how well the contents of the tank are transferred from the mixing tank during batch transfers. This testing is intended to provide supporting evidence to the assumption that Hanford Small Scale Mixing Demonstration (SSMD) testing in water is conservative.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC09-08SR22470
- OSTI ID:
- 1032621
- Report Number(s):
- SRNL-STI-2011-00483; TRN: US201202%%255
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste Management 2012
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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