Understanding of the rewetting behavior of heated vertical fuels pins is an important part of establishing reliable cooling of a PWR core following a loss of coolant accident (LOCA). Ahead of the quench front, complex and chaotic processes occur over a very small axial range, where high temperature gradients exist. In particular, repeated cyclic wetting and explosive evaporation at frequencies in the range 0.1 to 1.0 kHz is observed experimentally [1]. Despite extensive experimental and theoretical studies, the heat transfer mechanism in this region is still not well understood. In this paper we propose a mechanism, based on these observations, to explain the cyclical behavior. This postulated mechanism is transient near-surface cooling, followed by temperature recovery, of the metal substrate, with explosive vaporization when the homogeneous nucleation temperature is restored at the metal-water interface. A one-dimensional model of this cyclical process is constructed. The model indicates that the mechanism is plausible, predicting the observed periodic behavior, with predicted frequencies consistent with those observed in experiments.
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18th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering
May 17–21, 2010
Xi’an, China
Conference Sponsors:
- Nuclear Engineering Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-4932-3
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Modelling Rewetting of Heated Surfaces as Intermittently Bursting Liquid-Metal Contacts
Muhammad Ilyas,
Muhammad Ilyas
Imperial College London, London, UK
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Simon P. Walker,
Simon P. Walker
Imperial College London, London, UK
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Geoffrey F. Hewitt
Geoffrey F. Hewitt
Imperial College London, London, UK
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Muhammad Ilyas
Imperial College London, London, UK
Simon P. Walker
Imperial College London, London, UK
Geoffrey F. Hewitt
Imperial College London, London, UK
Paper No:
ICONE18-30208, pp. 1163-1169; 7 pages
Published Online:
April 8, 2011
Citation
Ilyas, M, Walker, SP, & Hewitt, GF. "Modelling Rewetting of Heated Surfaces as Intermittently Bursting Liquid-Metal Contacts." Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering. 18th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering: Volume 4, Parts A and B. Xi’an, China. May 17–21, 2010. pp. 1163-1169. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE18-30208
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