Improvement of JASMINE code for ex-vessel molten core coolability in BWR

Matsumoto, Toshinori; Kawabe, Ryuhei*; Iwasawa, Yuzuru; Sugiyama, Tomoyuki; Maruyama, Yu

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 178, p.109348_1 - 109348_13, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2022.109348

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency extended the applicability of their fuel-coolant interaction analysis code JASMINE to simulate the relevant phenomena of molten core in a severe accident. In order to evaluate the total coolability, it is necessary to know the mass fraction of particle, agglomerated and cake debris and the final geometry at the cavity bottom. An agglomeration model that considers the fusion of hot particles on the cavity floor was implemented in the JASMINE code. Another improvement is introduction of the melt spreading model based on the shallow water equation with consideration of crust formation at the melt surface. For optimization of adjusting parameters, we referred data from the agglomeration experiment DEFOR-A and the under-water spreading experiment PULiMS conducted by KTH in Sweden. The JASMINE analyses reproduced the most of the experimental results well with the common parameter set, suggesting that the primary phenomena are appropriately modelled.

BWR lower head penetration failure test focusing on eutectic melting

Yamashita, Takuya; Sato, Takumi; Madokoro, Hiroshi; Nagae, Yuji

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 173, p.109129_1 - 109129_15, 2022/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2022.109129

A 3D particle-based analysis of molten pool-to-structural wall heat transfer in a simulated fuel subassembly

Zhang, T.*; Morita, Koji*; Liu, X.*; Liu, W.*; Kamiyama, Kenji

Extended abstracts of the 2nd Asian Conference on Thermal Sciences (Internet), 2 Pages, 2021/10

For the Japanese sodium cooled fast reactor, a fuel subassembly with an inner duct structure (FAIDUS) was designed to avoid the re-criticality by preventing the large-scale pool formation. In the present study, using the finite volume particle method, the EAGLE ID1 test which was an in-pile test performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of FAIDUS was numerically simulated and the thermal-hydraulic mechanisms underlying the heat transfer process were analyzed.

Numerical simulation of heat transfer behavior in EAGLE ID1 in-pile test using finite volume particle method

Zhang, T.*; Funakoshi, Kanji*; Liu, X.*; Liu, W.*; Morita, Koji*; Kamiyama, Kenji

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 150, p.107856_1 - 107856_10, 2021/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2020.107856

Leaching behavior of prototypical Corium samples; A Step to understand the interactions between the fuel debris and water at the Fukushima Daiichi reactors

Nakayoshi, Akira; Jegou, C.*; De Windt, L.*; Perrin, S.*; Washiya, Tadahiro

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 360, p.110522_1 - 110522_18, 2020/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2020.110522

Particle-based simulation of heat transfer behavior in EAGLE ID1 in-pile test

Morita, Koji*; Ogawa, Ryusei*; Tokioka, Hiromi*; Liu, X.*; Liu, W.*; Kamiyama, Kenji

Proceedings of 12th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal-Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-12) (USB Flash Drive), 11 Pages, 2018/10

The EAGLE in-pile ID1 test has been performed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency to demonstrate early fuel discharge from a fuel subassembly with an inner duct structure, which is named FAIDUS. It was deduced that early duct wall failure observed in the test was initiated by high heat flux from the molten pool of fuel and steel mixture. The posttest analyses suggest that molten pool-to-duct wall heat transfer might be enhanced effectively by the molten steel with large thermal conductivity in the pool without the presence of fuel crust on the duct wall. In this study, mechanisms of heat transfer from the molten pool to the duct wall was analyzed using a fully Lagrangian approach based on the finite volume particle method for multi-component, multi-phase flows. A series of pin disruption, molten pool formation and duct wall failure behaviors was simulated to investigate mixing and separation behavior of molten steel and fuel in the pool, and their effect on molten pool-to-duct wall heat transfer. The present 2D particle-based simulations demonstrated that large thermal load beyond 10 MW/m on the duct wall was caused by effective heat transfer due to direct contact of liquid fuel with nuclear heat to the duct wall.

An Empirical correlation to predict the distance for fragmentation of simulated Molten-Core materials discharged into a sodium pool

Matsuba, Kenichi; Isozaki, Mikio; Kamiyama, Kenji; Suzuki, Toru; Tobita, Yoshiharu

Proceedings of 11th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-11) (USB Flash Drive), 8 Pages, 2016/10

In order to evaluate the distance for fragmentation of molten core material discharged into the lower sodium plenum during core disruptive accidents in sodium-cooled fast reactors, experiments with simulated molten materials and coolants (water, sodium) was carried out, where an empirical correlation of the distance for fragmentation was developed. The empirical correlation developed by this study showed a good agreement with the measurement results obtained by the present experiments. It was found that in order to well-predict the distance for fragmentation in sodium, thermal phenomena, such as sodium boiling and resultant vapor expansion, needed to be considered.

Development of simple method to incorporate out-of-core cooling effect on thorium conversion in multi-pass fueled reactor and investigation on characteristics of the effect

Fukaya, Yuji

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 81, p.301 - 305, 2015/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2015.03.005

Development of a simple method to incorporate the out-of-core cooling effect on the thorium conversion in multi-pass fueled reactors and investigation on characteristics of the effect have been performed. For multi-pass fueled reactors, such as Molten Salt Breeder Reactor (MSBR) and Pebble-Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), fuel moves in the core and exits from the core. The nuclides decay also out of the core, and it should be also considered if it is important for core characteristics. In the present study, Pa is considered to evaluate the thorium conversion accurately. To take the effect into account, in the present study, an effective decay constant is proposed to make equilibrium concentration of Pa without out-of-core cooling equal to that of out-of-core cooling. With the effective decay constant, the out-of-core cooling effect can be incorporated even with the code system using macroscopic cross sections generated by cell burn-up calculations without any code modification. In addition, the characteristic of out-of-core cooling effect for the thorium conversion is evaluated for thorium fueled reactors of MSBR and PBMR. It is concluded that the out-of-core cooling effect is suitable for MSBR to enhance thorium conversion because of the fast flow rate of fuel salt. On the other hand, the effect is not important and not realistic to employ for PBMR because the in-core residence time of approximately 100 days is longer than the half-life of Pa of 27.0 days, and the effect cannot improve the conversion ratio drastically.

Distance for fragmentation of a simulated molten-core material discharged into a sodium pool

Matsuba, Kenichi; Isozaki, Mikio; Kamiyama, Kenji; Suzuki, Toru; Tobita, Yoshiharu

Proceedings of 10th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-10) (USB Flash Drive), 7 Pages, 2014/12

In order to develop an evaluation method of the distance for fragmentation of molten core material discharged into the sodium plenum, a sodium experiment with visual observation was conducted using an X-ray imaging system. In the current experiments, 0.9 kg of molten aluminum (initial temperature: around 1473 K) was discharged into a sodium pool (initial temperature: 673 K) through a nozzle (inner diameter: 20 mm). Based on the experimental results, the distance for fragmentation of the liquid column was estimated to be 100 mm in the experiments. Through the sodium experiment, useful knowledge was obtained for the future development of an evaluation method of the distance for fragmentation of molten core material. As a next step, sodium experiments using higher-density molten materials will be conducted to enrich the experimental knowledge. Besides, a new semi-empirical correlation will be developed to evaluate more appropriately the distance for fragmentation under CDA conditions.

Research on the fundamental process of thermal-hydraulic behaviors in severe accident; Heat transfer on the liquid-liquid interface between molten core pool and coolant, JAERI's nuclear research promotion program, H10-027-6 (Contract research)

Mishima, Kaichiro*; Saito, Yasushi*

JAERI-Tech 2002-014, 83 Pages, 2002/03

JAERI-Tech-2002-014.pdf:6.83MB

no abstracts in English