Experimental discussion on fragmentation mechanism of molten oxide discharged into a sodium pool

Matsuba, Kenichi; Kamiyama, Kenji; Toyooka, Junichi; Tobita, Yoshiharu; Zuev, V. A.*; Kolodeshnikov, A. A.*; Vasilyev, Y. S.*

Proceedings of 23rd International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-23) (DVD-ROM), 6 Pages, 2015/05

To develop a method for evaluating the distance for fragmentation of molten core material discharged into sodium, the particle size distribution of alumina debris obtained in the FR tests was analyzed. The mass median diameters of solidified alumina particles were around 0.4 mm, which are comparable to particle sizes predicted by hydrodynamic instability theories such as Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. However, even though hydrodynamic instability theories predict that particle size decreases with an increase of Weber number, such the dependence of particle size on We was not observed in the FR tests. It can be interpreted that the tendency of measured mass median diameters (i.e., non-dependence on Weber number) suggests that before hydrodynamic instabilities sufficiently grow to induce fragmentation, thermal phenomena such as local coolant vaporization and resultant vapor expansion accelerate fragmentation.