Progress Report on Model Development for Aerosol Transport through Divergent Cracks Paths

Technical Report · Sat Sep 30 04:00:00 EDT 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2351077· OSTI ID:2351077

Sasikumar, Yadu ^[1]; Lau, Jonah ^[2]; Chatzidakis, Stylianos ^[2]

---

1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
2. Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN (United States)

This report summarizes the progress in developing a phenomenological model of aerosol transport, deposition, and plugging through microchannels. The purpose of this effort is to introduce to a user community—involving researchers, regulators, and industry—a generic, reliable numerical model for the prediction of aerosol transport while accounting for potential deposition and plugging of the leak paths to model spent nuclear fuel (SNF) release from postulated Stress Corrosion Cracks in canisters under storage or transportation. Current work focuses on expanding the model to predict aerosol (and gas) flow through complex microchannel (nozzle) geometries in addition to the rectangular and cylindrical geometries, as we approach more realistic Stress Corrosion Crack conditions. In this regard, a divergent nozzle geometry, used at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) for testing aerosol release and retention (Durbin et al. 2021), was added to the model. The model was then validated with blowdown data for the particular microchannel, from experiments conducted at SNL. The report also presents preliminary non-benchmarked aerosol penetration fraction and mass flow rate for a monodisperse 10-micron (AED) particle concentration of 1.7e-08 kg/m³ being released through the divergent microchannel geometry from the SNL’s aerosol experimental tank setup.Future work will involve validating the aerosol model and updating the model’s Graphical User Interface (GUI) to include the divergent nozzle geometry. This is expected to help stakeholders perform quick and easy first principles calculations without needing to understand the underlying MATLAB script.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 2351077
• Report Number(s): ORNL/SPR--2023/3110; M4SF-22OR010207012
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES