Large-scale boiling experiments of the flooded cavity concept for in-vessel core retention

Conference · Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:10128921

Chu, T Y; Slezak, S E; Bentz, J H ^[1]; Pasedag, W F ^[2]

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1. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)

This paper presents results of ex-vessel boiling experiments performed in the CYBL (CYlindrical BoiLing) facility. CYBL is a reactor-scale facility for confirmatory research of the flooded cavity concept for accident management. CYBL has a tank-within-a-tank design; the inner tank simulates the reactor vessel and the outer tank simulates the reactor cavity. Experiments with uniform and edge-peaked heat flux distributions up to 20 W/cm{sup 2} across the vessel bottom were performed. Boiling outside the reactor vessel was found to be subcooled nucleate boiling. The subcooling is mainly due to the gravity head which results from flooding the sides of the reactor vessel. The boiling process exhibits a cyclic pattern with four distinct phases: direct liquid/solid contact, bubble nucleation and growth, coalescence, and vapor mass dispersion (ejection). The results suggest that under prototypic heat load and heat flux distributions, the flooded cavity in a passive pressurized water reactor like the AP-600 should be capable of cooling the reactor pressure vessel in the central region of the lower head that is addressed by these tests.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 10128921
• Report Number(s): SAND-94-0376C; CONF-940375-1; ON: DE94007387; BR: GB0103012; TRN: 94:008450
• Resource Relation: Conference: Office for Economic Cooperation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency workshop on large molten pool heat transfer,Grenoble (France),9-11 Mar 1994; Other Information: PBD: [1994]
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
REACTOR SAFETY
SCALE MODELS
TEST FACILITIES
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDRAULICS
SUBCOOLING
HEAT FLUX
REACTOR VESSELS
NUCLEATE BOILING
220900
210200
POWER REACTORS
NONBREEDING
LIGHT-WATER MODERATED
NONBOILING WATER COOLED