TRAN B-3: experimental investigation of fuel crust stability on melting surfaces of an annular flow channel
The TRAN B series of experiments is being conducted at Sandia National Laboratories to investigate the characteristics of fuel removal/freezing through the upper axial blankets of an LMFBR during the transition phase of a hypothetical core disruptive accident. The third experiment in this series, TRAN B-3, was performed in February 1984, and the results are reported herein. This experiment involved the injection of molten UO/sub 2/ into an annular flow channel. Unlike the similar TRAN B-1 experiment, the initial steel wall temperature in B-3 was sufficiently high that instantaneous steel melting would occur upon contact with molten fuel. The earlier TRAN B-1 results had shown that fuel crusts are initially stable, both on the inside of a steel tube as well as on the outside of a steel rod, when no steel melting occurred. TRAN B-3 was designed to investigate this question of crust stability on surfaces of opposite curvature when surface melting did occur. The results of the TRAN B-3 experiment, consisting of data from online instrumentation and post-irradiation examination, are very similar to the TRAN B-1 results and indicate that crusts on both inner and outer surfaces of the annular channel were stable during the duration of the fuel flow.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 5573289
- Report Number(s):
- NUREG/CR-3944; SAND-84-1646; ON: TI85011234
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Post-test analysis of TRAN-1 and TRAN-2 final-fuel distributions
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BREEDER REACTORS
DESIGN
EPITHERMAL REACTORS
FAST REACTORS
FBR TYPE REACTORS
FLOW MODELS
FLOW RATE
FLUID FLOW
FLUID MECHANICS
FUEL CHANNELS
FUEL ELEMENTS
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MATHEMATICAL MODELS
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REACTOR CHANNELS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTOR CORE DISRUPTION
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REACTOR INSTRUMENTATION
REACTOR SAFETY
REACTORS
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SURFACE PROPERTIES
SYSTEM FAILURE ANALYSIS
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