Lower Plenum Voiding

One of the phenomena involved in a loss-of-coolant accident in a pressurized water reactor may be lower plenum voiding. This might occur during the blowdown phase after a cold-leg break in the primary coolant circuit. Steam generated in the reactor core may flow out of the bottom of the reactor core, turn in the lower plenum of the vessel, in a direction countercurrent to the emergency core coolant flow, and escape via the break. If its velocity is high enough, this steam may sweep water from the bottom (lower plenum) of the reactor vessel. Emergency coolant added to the vessel may also be carried out by the escaping steam and thus the reflooding of the core would be delayed. This paper describes a study of two-phase hydrodynamics associated with lower plenum voiding. Several geometrical configurations were tested at three different scales, using air to simulate the steam. Comparisons were made with data obtained by other researchers.