In-vessel melt retention has drawn renewed concern as an important severe accident management measure in existing and advanced light water reactors. Despite numerous studies the central question whether the maximum heat flux in a melt pool could exceed the critical heat flux (CHF) is not fully answered. The uncertainty comes from the variety of accident scenarios and the corresponding melt pool configurations, as well as from the applicability of the experimental results to the reactor case. It is therefore necessary to examine the melt heat transfer under different pool configurations and cooling conditions, as well as to compare the experimental results coming from different test vessel geometries and cooling regimes.
This study investigates the heat transfer characteristics of an oxidic pool in the PWR lower plenum in the case when the vessel wall is externally cooled by water, and the melt upper surface is free in a closed insulated environment. Thus the melt pool cooling conditions are quasi-isothermal at the inclined sidewall and at the upper surface free surface with thermal radiation. This pool configuration can occur before the melt layer stratification begins or the melt pool is composed only of oxide melt under certain melt relocation sequences.
A non-eutectic nitrate mixture with the composition of 20% NaNO3−80% KNO3 in mole relation is used as the simulant melt. Besides the determination of melt temperature and heat flux in their global average values, emphasis are given on the characterization of the axial distribution of melt temperature and heat flux at different power densities and pool heights. Results obtained in hemispherical geometry are analyzed and compared with other studies conducted under similar boundary conditions. The characterization of the heat flux distribution provide important data for the prediction of the maximum heat flux in the reactor case with similar boundary conditions and the evaluation of the concept of in-vessel melt retention by external cooling.
