Development of the analytical method using DPD simulation for molten fuel behaviour in a sodium-cooled fast reactor

Sonehara, Masateru ; Uchibori, Akihiro ; Aoyagi, Mitsuhiro ; Kawada, Kenichi   ; Takata, Takashi  ; Ohshima, Hiroyuki

In sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs), it has been pointed out that molten fuel may be discharged from the core during a severe accident (SA) accompanied by core damage, and may solidify into debri particles with diameters ranging from several millimeters to several hundred micrometers due to interaction with the sodium coolant and accumulate at the bottom of the reactor vessel. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the behavior of such debri particles appropriately to evaluate the SA event progression. To meet these requirements, a molten fuel behavior analysis code using dissipative particle dynamics (DPD), a kind of particle method, has been developed as a part of the SPECTRA code, tool for consistent analysis of in-vessel and ex-vessel events in sodium fast reactor accidents. In this study, it was found that the new analyses code can reproduce sedimentation behavior of particles by adding a new stress term in the shear direction.