Development of a model for predicting transient hydrogen venting in 55-gallon drums

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2008

OSTI ID:956600

Apperson, Jason W ^[1]; Clemmons, James S ^[1]; Garcia, Michael D ^[1]; Sur, John C ^[1]; Zhang, Duan Z ^[1]; Romero, Michael J ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory

Remote drum venting was performed on a population of unvented high activity drums (HAD) in the range of 63 to 435 plutonium equivalent Curies (PEC). These 55-gallon Transuranic (TRU) drums will eventually be shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). As a part of this process, the development of a calculational model was required to predict the transient hydrogen concentration response of the head space and polyethylene liner (if present) within the 55-gallon drum. The drum and liner were vented using a Remote Drum Venting System (RDVS) that provided a vent sampling path for measuring flammable hydrogen vapor concentrations and allow hydrogen to diffuse below lower flammability limit (LFL) concentrations. One key application of the model was to determine the transient behavior of hydrogen in the head space, within the liner, and the sensitivity to the number of holes made in the liner or number of filters. First-order differential mass transport equations were solved using Laplace transformations and numerically to verify the results. the Mathematica 6.0 computing tool was also used as a validation tool and for examining larger than two chamber systems. Results will be shown for a variety of configurations, including 85-gallon and 110-gallon overpack drums. The model was also validated against hydrogen vapor concentration assay measurements.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 956600
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-08-07516; LA-UR-08-7516
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
CONTAINERS
FILTERS
FLAMMABILITY
HOLES
HYDROGEN
LAPLACE TRANSFORMATION
LINERS
MASS TRANSFER
MEETINGS
PLUTONIUM
POLYETHYLENES
RANGE
SAMPLING
SENSITIVITY
TRANSIENTS
VALIDATION
VAPORS
VENTS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WIPP