After a core-disruptive accident (CDA) in sodium-cooled fast reactor, degraded core material can form debris beds on core-support structure or in the lower inlet plenum of the reactor vessel. This paper reports an experimental evaluation on debris bed formation characteristic in CDA. Investigation of debris bed characteristic during debris sedimentation on core catcher plate is important from recriticality concern and also from cooling considerations to ensure the safety of the reactor main vessel in CDA. In the present study, to evaluate this characteristic, a series of experiments was performed by gravity driven discharge of solid particles as simulant debris from a nozzle into a quiescent water pool in isothermal condition at room temperature. The discharged solid particles with a maximum amount of 10 L finally accumulate on the debris tray, forming a bed with a convex or concave mound depending on the experimental parameters. The nozzle diameter, nozzle height, debris density, debris diameter and debris volume are taken as the experimental parameters. Currently, three types of spherical particles, namely Al2O3, ZrO2 and stainless steel (SS) with diameter of 2, 4, or 6 mm are employed to study the effect of key experimental parameter on debris bed mound shape. In addition, 2 mm non-spherical particles of SS were also utilized to investigate the effect of debris shape on altering mound profile. In experimental investigation with different debris volume, both developing and fully developed mound shapes were observed based on the effect of debris size, density and nozzle diameter. In this study, the investigated particle velocity of main stream settling particles was found increasing with nozzle diameter, which caused a decrement of mound height with an increment of mound dimple area. In nozzle height effect, shrinking of concavity on mound shape was observed with decreasing manner of impact velocity while height is reducing. From the visualization results of the experimental investigations, transformation of bed shape from convex to concave was observed with increasing repose angle incase of 4 mm Al2O3 particle. In general, transformation of bed shape was observed by increasing either nozzle diameter or particle density for all particle type. The present results could be useful to validate numerical models and simulation codes of particulate debris sedimentation.
This paper presents numerical simulations using the discrete element method (DEM) to model sedimentation behavior of solid debris particles, which is significant for estimates of the coolability of debris beds. A series of experiments of gravity driven discharge of solid particles into a quiescent water pool was used to validate the DEM simulation method. We evaluated the effects of three crucial factors: particle density, particle diameter, and nozzle diameter on three key quantitative parameters: particle dispersion angle, particle fall time in the pool, and the height of the deposited particle bed to express the particle sedimentation behavior. The three crucial factors play a significant role in the particle sedimentation behavior. We compared the experimental and simulated results of the particle dispersion angle and particle fall time in the pool, and the height and shape of the deposited particle bed. The general trend of the simulation results indicates a reasonable agreement with the experimental observations. The simulations exhibit the potential applicability of the DEM-based simulation technique for the prediction of particle sedimentation behavior.
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