Transient Simulation on Reactor Core Melt and Lower Support Plate Ablation in In-Vessel Retention

To precisely understand the accident process of reactor core melt in In-vessel retention (IVR) condition, 3-dimensional transient thermal conduction analysis with moving boundary is performed on quarter reactor core model. The decline of decay power and water level in reactor pressure vessel (RPV), and the radial distribution of assemblies of different material is considered. Convective heat transfer on rod surface and coolant interface is computed with empirical correlation of natural convection of saturated steam vapor / water. Radiation heat transfer with 16 neighboring rod is considered. Also, a dynamic ablation model is developed to simulate the ablation of lower support plate (LSP) caused by continuously accumulation of molten corium. The impingement heat transfer of the falling corium and the molten pool formed in LSP ablation cavity is taken into account. The simulation gives the ablation process on the surface of LSP as well as temperature history and molten proportion of the reactor core, which shows agreement with reference. Simulation shows: the melt process of reactor core accelerated in the accident process of 2600s, when coolant in RPV dry up. 65% of the core mass has molten at 8000 second. LSP is completely penetrated in 6000s, the ablation of LSP is mainly focused on an annular region of radius 700mm.