Natural convection characteristics of pool penetration into a melting miscible substrate. Final report

Technical Report · Sun Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1984

OSTI ID:6819037

Epstein, M; Grolmes, M A

The objective of the research program is the identification and elucidation of the mechanism by which a warm liquid pool penetrates an underlying meltable solid of less-dense material, for the case where the molten phase of the solid and pool liquid are mutually miscible. Melting of this type is of interest in the design of post-accident core-retention systems for nuclear reactors. An attempt was made to reproduce the previous experimental results for salt-solution-pool penetration into polyethylene glycol (PEG). It was found that the unconventional melting trends reported previously could be eliminated if careful control of the initial PEG temperature is maintained. The new experimental data is shown to be consistent with the notion that the melting of PEG by an overlying pool of heavier salt solution is controlled by the flow of melt fluid within the boundary layer that clings to the substrate surface. Additional experiments seem to support the conclusion for other pool-substrate material pairs as well.

• Research Organization: Fauske and Associates, Inc., Burr Ridge, IL (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6819037
• Report Number(s): PB-87-125266/XAB; FAI-84/37
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
220900* -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Reactor Safety
42 ENGINEERING
420400 -- Engineering-- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow
ACCIDENTS
CONTAINMENT
CONTAINMENT SYSTEMS
CONVECTION
ENERGY TRANSFER
ENGINEERED SAFETY SYSTEMS
FLUID MECHANICS
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDRODYNAMICS
MASS TRANSFER
MECHANICS
MELTDOWN
MELTING
NATURAL CONVECTION
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
REACTOR ACCIDENTS