Mechanisms of vapor explosions. Final report, September 1, 1976-March 31, 1984
Three areas which are relevant to the basic mechanisms of vapor explosions have been addressed, both experimentally and theortically: the destabilization of film boiling by a pressure shock wave; the basic fragmentation and mixing mechanisms once liquid-liquid contact has been achieved; the necessary conditions for a supercritical Board-Hall thermal detonation. It has been shown that shock waves of only a few bars overpressure can produce liquid-solid contacts for periods of a millisecond or more, with accompanying very high heat transfer rates, in a nickel-Freon system. The results are in agreement with a theoretical analysis demonstrating when contact is or is not established. Mixing time constants have been measured for tin-water interactions in a shock tube configuration. The predominant mode of interaction appears to be by multiple expansions and a contraction, which implies that in large scales the final contraction might give rise to a vigorous explosion. However this is not considered to be likely in the LMFBR because of the spontaneous nucleation requirement. Supercritical propagating plane detonations have been shown to be limited to a very narrow range of initial conditions, which would be very difficult to achieve in practice.
- Research Organization:
- Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76ET37210
- OSTI ID:
- 6854229
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ET/37210-1; ON: DE84013484
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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BOILING
BREEDER REACTORS
EPITHERMAL REACTORS
EXPLOSIONS
FAST REACTORS
FBR TYPE REACTORS
FUEL-COOLANT INTERACTIONS
LIQUID METAL COOLED REACTORS
LMFBR TYPE REACTORS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
REACTORS
SHOCK TUBES
SHOCK WAVES