Study on steam explosions with molten silicon

Moriyama, Kiyofumi; Maruyama, Yu*; Nakamura, Hideo

JAERI-Research 2002-021, 36 Pages, 2002/11

JAERI-Research-2002-021.pdf:6.0MB

Silicon is a material which is easily oxidized like zirconium which is one of the LWR core materials. Also, its steam explosion behavior is a concern in semi-conductor industries where its melt is handled. In this study, steam explosion behavior of silicon melt and contribution of oxidation reaction in a steam explosion were investigated. Two cases of experiments were performed by dropping silicon melt into a water pool and both produced spontaneous steam explosions. Energy conversion ratio was 4--9% which was similar or slightly larger compared with previous experiments with thermite melt. Fragmentation of the melt was finer than previous experiments and the mass median diameter of the debris was 65--85m. An oxide layer of about 5m thick was fond on the debris surface indicating possibility of oxidation of several % of the melt.

Fuel-coolant interaction experiments in ALPHA program

Sugimoto, Jun; Yamano, N.; Maruyama, Yu; Hidaka, Akihide; Soda, Kunihisa

Proc. of the 5th Int. Topical Meeting on Reactor Thermal Hydraulics,Vol. III, p.890 - 897, 1992/00

no abstracts in English