Effect of inner wall cracking on the cavitation bubble formation in the mercury spallation target at J-PARC

Ariyoshi, Gen; Saruta, Koichi; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Futakawa, Masatoshi; Maeno, Koki*; Li, Y.*; Tsutsui, Kihei*

Proceedings of 20th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-20) (Internet), p.1407 - 1420, 2023/08

https://doi.10.13182/NURETH20-41514

Cavitation damage on a target vessel due to proton beam-induced pressure waves is one of the crucial issues for the pulsed neutron source using a mercury spallation target. As a mitigation technique for the damage, the helium microbubble injection into the mercury has been carried out by using a swirl bubbler in order to utilize compressibility of bubbles. Moreover, double-walled structure, which consists of an outer wall and an inner wall, has been applied as the target head structure. In this study, we aim to develop an abnormality diagnostic technology to detect the inner wall cracking, which is caused by such cavitation damage, from the outside of the target vessel. The mercury flow fields in the case with the cracking are evaluated by computational fluid dynamics analysis based on finite element method. And then, effect of the cracking on the flow field is discussed from the point of view of the flow-induced vibration and the acoustic vibration.

Development of a new corrosion mitigation technology using nanobubbles toward corrosion mitigation in PCV system under the influence of //-rays radiolysis (Contract research); FY2021 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tohoku University*

JAEA-Review 2022-069, 114 Pages, 2023/03

JAEA-Review-2022-069.pdf:5.91MB

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2021. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (1F), Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2020, this report summarizes the research results of the "Development of a new corrosion mitigation technology using nanobubbles toward corrosion mitigation in PCV system under the influence of //-rays radiolysis" conducted in FY2021. In this work, in order to ensure the long-term reliability of steel structures that ensure important confinement functions in the debris removal process, such as existing PCVs and newly constructed negative pressure maintenance systems and piping, corrosion phenomena in wet environments where - and -ray emitting nuclides come into contact with steel are clarified for the first time.

Development of a new corrosion mitigation technology using nanobubbles toward corrosion mitigation in PCV system under the influence of //-rays radiolysis (Contract research); FY2020 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tohoku University*

JAEA-Review 2022-002, 85 Pages, 2022/06

JAEA-Review-2022-002.pdf:3.39MB

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2020. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2020, this report summarizes the research results of the "Development of a new corrosion mitigation technology using nanobubbles toward corrosion mitigation in PCV system under the influence of //-rays radiolysis" conducted in FY2020. In this work, in order to ensure the long-term reliability of steel structures that ensure important confinement functions in the debris removal process, such as existing PCVs and newly constructed negative pressure maintenance systems and piping, corrosion phenomena in wet environments where - and -ray emitting nuclides come into contact with steel are clarified for the first time.

Development of the high-power spallation neutron target of J-PARC

Haga, Katsuhiro; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Naoe, Takashi; Wakui, Takashi; Wakai, Eiichi; Futakawa, Masatoshi

Proceedings of 19th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-19) (Internet), 13 Pages, 2022/03

The cross-flow type target was developed as the basic design of mercury target in J-PARC, and the design has been improved to realize the MW-class pulsed spallation neutron source. When the high-power and short-pulsed proton beam is injected into the mercury target, pressure waves are generated in mercury by rapid heat generation. The pressure waves induce the cavitation damages on the target vessel. Two countermeasures were adopted, namely, the injection of microbubbles into mercury and the double walled structure at the beam window. The bubble generator was installed in the target vessel to absorb the volume inflation of mercury and mitigate the pressure waves. Also, the double walled target vessel was designed to suppress the cavitation damage by the large velocity gradient of rapid mercury flow in the narrow channel of double wall. Finally, we could attain 1 MW beam operation with the duration time of 36.5 hours in 2020, and achieved the long term stable operation with 740 kW from April in 2021. This report shows the technical development of the high-power mercury target vessel in view of thermal hydraulics to attain 1 MW operation.

Analytical study on removal mechanisms of cesium aerosol from a noble gas bubble rising through liquid sodium pool, 2; Effects of particle size distribution and agglomeration in aerosols

Miyahara, Shinya*; Kawaguchi, Munemichi; Seino, Hiroshi; Atsumi, Takuto*; Uno, Masayoshi*

Proceedings of 28th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 28) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2021/08

https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE28-63286

In a postulated accident of fuel pin failure of sodium cooled fast reactor, a fission product cesium will be released from the failed pin as an aerosol such as cesium iodide and/or cesium oxide together with a fission product noble gas such as xenon and krypton. As the result, the xenon and krypton released with cesium aerosol into the sodium coolant as bubbles have an influence on the removal of cesium aerosol by the sodium pool in a period of bubble rising to the pool surface. In this study, cesium aerosol removal behavior due to inertial deposition, sedimentation and diffusion from a noble gas bubble rising through liquid sodium pool was analyzed by a computer program which deals with the expansion and the deformation of the bubble together with the aerosol absorption considering the effects of particle size distribution and agglomeration in aerosols. In the analysis, initial bubble diameter, sodium pool depth and temperature, aerosol particle diameter and density, initial aerosol concentration in the bubble were changed as parameter, and the results for the sensitivities of these parameters on decontamination factor (DF) of cesium aerosol were compared with the results of the previous study in which the effects of particle size distribution and agglomeration in aerosols were not considered. From the results, it was concluded that the sensitivities of initial bubble diameter, the aerosol particle diameter and density to the DF became significant due to the inertial deposition of agglomerated aerosols. To validate these analysis results, the simulation experiments have been conducted using a simulant particles of cesium aerosol under the condition of room temperature in water pool and air bubble systems. The experimental results were compared with the analysis results calculated under the same condition.

Lattice Boltzmann modeling and simulation of forced-convection boiling on a cylinder

Saito, Shimpei*; De Rosis, A.*; Fei, L.*; Luo, K. H.*; Ebihara, Kenichi; Kaneko, Akiko*; Abe, Yutaka*

Physics of Fluids, 33(2), p.023307_1 - 023307_21, 2021/02

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0032743

A Boiling phenomenon in a liquid flow field is known as forced-convection boiling. We numerically investigated the boiling system on a cylinder in a flow at a saturated condition. To deal with such a phenomenon, we developed a numerical scheme based on the pseudopotential lattice Boltzmann method. The collision was performed in the space of central moments (CMs) to enhance stability for high Reynolds numbers. Furthermore, additional terms for thermodynamic consistency were derived in a CMs framework. The effectiveness of the model was tested against some boiling processes, including nucleation, growth, and departure of a vapor bubble for high Reynolds numbers. Our model can reproduce all the boiling regimes without the artificial initial vapor phase. We found that the Nukiyama curve appears even though the focused system is the forced-convection system. Also, our simulations support experimental observations of intermittent direct solid-liquid contact even in the film-boiling regime.

Analytical study on removal mechanisms of cesium aerosol from a noble gas bubble rising through liquid sodium pool

Miyahara, Shinya*; Kawaguchi, Munemichi; Seino, Hiroshi

Proceedings of 2020 International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 2020) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2020/08

https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE2020-16208

In a postulated accident of fuel pin failure of sodium cooled fast reactor, a fission product cesium will be released as an aerosol such as cesium iodide and/or oxide together with xenon and/or krypton. In this study, cesium aerosol removal behavior due to inertial deposition, sedimentation and diffusion was analyzed by a computer program which deals with the expansion and the deformation of the bubble together with the aerosol absorption. Initial bubble diameter, sodium pool depth and temperature, aerosol particle diameter and density, initial aerosol concentration were changed as parameter. From the results, it was concluded that the initial bubble diameter was most sensitive parameter to the decontamination factor (DF). It was found that the sodium pool depth, the aerosol particle diameter and density have also important effect on the DF, but the sodium temperature has a marginal effect. To meet these results, the experiments are under planning to validate the results.

Experimental study on local interfacial parameters in upward air-water bubbly flow in a vertical 66 rod bundle

Han, X.*; Shen, X.*; Yamamoto, Toshihiro*; Nakajima, Ken*; Sun, Haomin; Hibiki, Takashi*

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 144, p.118696_1 - 118696_19, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2019.118696

Parametric analysis of bubble and dissolved gas behavior in primary coolant system of sodium-cooled fast reactors

Matsushita, Kentaro; Ito, Kei*; Ezure, Toshiki; Tanaka, Masaaki

Proceedings of 27th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-27) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2019/05

A numerical simulation code named SYRENA has been developed in JAEA to analyze the behavior of entrained bubbles and dissolved gas in the primary coolant of sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR). In the present study, a flow network model of SYRENA to a hypothetical pool type reactor was developed and the non-condensable gas behavior was investigated through the comparison with that in the loop type reactor. The effect of the dipped-plate (D/P) tentatively introduced into the pool-type reactor on the gas behavior was investigated through the parametric analyses about the sodium exchange flow rate through the D/P and the gas entrainment rate at the free surface. It was suggested that the increase in the exchange flow rate through the D/P doesn't always work to decrease the bubble volume in the primary coolant system.

Numerical study on effect of pressure on behavior of bubble coalescence by using CMFD simulation

Ono, Ayako; Suzuki, Takayuki*; Yoshida, Hiroyuki

Proceedings of 26th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-26) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2018/07

The mechanism of critical heat flux (CHF) for higher system pressure remains to be clarified, even though it is important to evaluate the CHF for the light water reactor (LWR) which is operated under the high pressure condition. In this study, the process of bubble coalescence was simulated by using a computational multi-fluid dynamics (CMFD) simulation code TPFIT under various system pressure in order to investigate the behavior of bubbles as a basic study. The growth of bubbles was simulated by blowing of vapor from a tiny orifice simulating bubble bottom. One or four orifices were located on the bottom surface in this simulation study. The numerical simulations were conducted by varying the pressure and temperature.