Suppression Features of a Vapor Explosion With Prototypic Reactor Materials

The suppression of a vapor explosion is reviewed from a void fraction point of view from previous research results and the results of an experiment and analysis for TROI using a prototypic reactor material. In a tin-water system, a high fraction of air which played the role of a steam reduced the peak pressure of a steam explosion. According to the sensitivity analysis that was carried out with an increase in the vapor volume fraction, an energetic vapor explosion hardly took place in the mixture with a high void fraction. In higher vapor fraction conditions (α_v> 0.3), the vapor explosion was very weak. A prototypic corium shows a relatively high void fraction compared to the ZrO2 which is known as an explosive material because the corium system generated many smaller particles compared to the ZrO2 system. The corium system shows a relatively low explosivity compared to the ZrO2 system because the high void fraction of the corium system plays the role of preventing a contact between the water and the hot melt drops in the triggering stage. When considering the experimental results for the role of air instead of steam, an air supply system to provide a high volume fraction during a premixing process can radically prevent and/or mitigate a steam explosion.