Simeco Tests in a Melt Stratified Pool

In the last phase of the core degradation, an oxidic melt pool of mainly UO₂, ZrO₂, and unoxidized Zircaloy and stain-less steel will form in the lower head of the RPV (Theofanous et al., 1996). A molten metal layer (composed mainly of Fe and Zr) will rest on the top of the crust of the oxidic pool. A thin oxidic crust layer of frozen core material is formed on the vessel’s inside wall. In this bounding configuration, thermal loads to the RPV walls are determined by natural convection heat transfer driven by internal heat sources. Decay heat from fission products is assumed to be generated uniformly within the oxidic pool and generally no heat generation is considered in the upper metallic layer. For example, in a hypothetical severe accident scenario for an AP600-like reactor, the following values can be expected: volumetric heat generation Q_v ∼ 1 MW/m³, volume of the oxidic pool V ∼ 10 m³, radius R = 2 m, temperatures in the oxidic pool T ∼ 2700°C, temperatures in the metal layer T ∼ 2000°C, maximum depth ratio of the metal layer to the oxidic pool L₁₂ ∼ 0:3, properties of the oxidic pool, depending on melt composition, as characterized by the Prandtl number, Pr ∼ 0:6, properties of the metallic layer Pr < 0:1, the intensity of convective motion, as characterized by the Rayleigh number, Ra ∼ 10¹⁵–10¹⁶ (Theofanous et al., 1996). The time scale of core melt pool formation is estimated as 1/2 to 1 hour (Sehgal, 1999). Indeed, these estimates could vary, depending very much on the accident scenario and the type of reactor.