Experimental Studies on Leak Propagation of Heat Transfer Tubes by Swat-1 and Swat-3

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H.Tanab*; Sato, Minoru*; Y.Daoig*

H.Tanab*; Sato, Minoru*; Y.Daoig*

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Failure propagation tests have been conducted using the Large Leak Sodium Water Reaction Test Rig (SWAT-1) and the Steam Generator Safety Test Facility (SWAT-3) at PNC in order to establish the safety design of the LMFBR prototype MONJU steam generators. The test objectives are to provide data for selecting a design basis leak (DBL), data on the time history of failure propagations, data on the mechanism of the failures and data on re-use of tubes in steam generators that have suffered leaks. Initially eleven fundamental tests were performed in a intermediate leak region using the SWAT-1 test rig, and then seven failure propagation tests were conducted in the region from a small leak to a large leak using the SWAT-3 test facility. From the test results it was concluded that a dominant mechanism was tube wastage, and it took more than one minutes until each failure propagation occurred. Also, the total leak rate in a full term simulation test, including a water dump was far less than that of one double-ended-guillotine (DEG) failure. A further test program is to be conducted so as to provide a much more explicit simulation of the MONJU design.