Development of particle collection technique by using bubble breakup phenomenon in venturi tube

Uesawa, Shinichiro; Shibata, Mitsuhiko; Yoshida, Hiroyuki

Konsoryu, 37(1), p.55 - 64, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.3811/jjmf.2023.005

In decommissioning Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the issue is confinement of radioactive aerosols in the primary containment vessel. Although a High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter is used to collect the aerosol particles, pretreatment equipment such as a scrubber may be applied to reduce the load of HEPA filters. In the scrubber, the aerosol particles are removed by moving from gas to liquid through gas-liquid interface. Since the collection efficiency (CE) depends on gas-liquid interfacial area, fine bubbles are necessary to obtain high collection efficiency. JAEA developed a new particle removal technique by using bubble breakup phenomenon in a Venturi tube. To confirm usefulness of the technique, we performed the CE measurements and observed gas-liquid two-phase flow in the Venturi tube. In comparison with a straight pipe type, the Venturi type can have removed particles more 1,000 than it. The CE is almost the same as a HEPA filter. In addition, the Venturi type has the enough CE as the pretreatment equipment for various materials of particles such as Kanto loam, SUS and oil. Besides, we clarified that the CE of the Venturi type depended on the gas and liquid flow rates. The CE increases with the increase of the liquid flow rate but decreases with the increase of the gas flow rate. This is because the CE is affected by the bubble breakup phenomenon in the Venturi tube. In the experiment, we confirmed that cavitation number which is the parameter of the bubble breakup was related to the CE of the Venturi type.