Bubbling Behavior in a Waste Glass Melter
Conference
·
· WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences
Legacy tank waste from five decades of plutonium production at the Hanford Site during the Cold War will be vitrified into a stable waste form for disposal. A Waste Treatment Plant, currently under construction, houses Joule heated ceramic-lined waste glass melters wherein radioactive waste will be combined with glass formers to produce borosilicate glass. Through testing conducted in pilot-scale melters with surrogate waste, as well as operational experience at other sites, it has been demonstrated that the use of bubblers can dramatically improve the glass production rate. However, knowledge of the bubble dynamics in the molten glass is necessary for prediction and design of improved melting processes. A computational fluid dynamics model of the melter has been developed to investigate the processes affecting feed melt rate. The model shows that the convection currents within the melt pool due to Joule heating supplied by the electrodes are enhanced by forced air bubbling. In this paper, parameters influencing the formation and rise of a bubble stream in a viscous liquid are investigated. Experimental data and observations from laboratory and pilot-scale testing are integrated with first principles to develop a set of equations that form a mechanistic bubbling model to be incorporated into the melter model.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1360628
- Report Number(s):
- INL/CON-15-34163
- Conference Information:
- Journal Name: WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences Journal Volume: 105
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Numerical comparison of bubbling in a waste glass melter
Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Bubbling in a Viscous Fluid for Validation of Waste Glass Melter Modeling
Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Bubbling in a Viscous Fluid for Validation of Waste Glass Melter Modeling
Journal Article
·
Mon Dec 04 19:00:00 EST 2017
· Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford)
·
OSTI ID:1478416
Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Bubbling in a Viscous Fluid for Validation of Waste Glass Melter Modeling
Conference
·
Thu Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2015
·
OSTI ID:1348074
Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Bubbling in a Viscous Fluid for Validation of Waste Glass Melter Modeling
Conference
·
Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016
·
OSTI ID:22977520