Mixing behavior of argon jet with liquid sodium around a single rod; A Basic study on sodium-water reaction

Tsuruoka, Hokuto*; Tamura, Takeshi*; Sugiyama, Kenichiro*; Narabayashi, Tadashi*; Ohshima, Hiroyuki

The occurrence of secondary heat transfer tube failure due to overheating by sodium-water reaction in LMFBR steam generators has been concerned from the viewpoint of public acceptance. To evaluate the phenomena, a sophisticated computer code SERAPHIM has been developed by JAEA. For the purpose of obtaining fundamental data for the validation of the code, a sodium experiment was carried out, where the void fraction around a single rod set in a sodium pool without sodium-water reaction was measured. The void fraction was observed to somewhat increase with increasing the gas jet velocity. The increase rate was clearly smaller compared with that in the water experiment. The void fraction also showed more monotonous distribution from the stagnation point to the rear point than that in water pool. These results reflect the difference of surface tension between water and sodium. It is concluded that the entrainment of ambient sodium is easily caused and this leads monotonous distribution of void fraction in the sodium pool.