Molten Corium Concrete Interaction investigation of convective heat transfer in a pool with gas sparging
Résumé
During a severe accident in a Pressurized Water Reactor, corium may fall in the reactor pit and interact with concrete. The CLARA setup, financed by EDF, IRSN, GDF-Suez and CEA, has been designed to understand the heat transfer phenomena involved in the Molten Concrete Corium Interaction (MCCI). The facility is composed of a pool of simulant liquids, percolated by air and internally heated by direct electrical current. It is in contact with several heat exchangers in order to maintain walls at a constant temperature and to measure local heat losses. The experiments performed aimed at studying the influence of liquid viscosity (varying from 1 to 10000 mPa.s by dissolution of hydroxyethyl cellulose in the water), air injection velocities (ranging from 0 to 10 cm/s) on both horizontal and vertical walls and pool length, on heat transfer distribution.
This paper presents the findings on heat transfer which would contribute to the understanding of MCCI. After a literature review on the existing heat transfer experiments and correlations for two-phase (liquid-gas) flow, the CLARA experiments are described. Then, the results obtained are presented influence of superficial gas velocity and liquid properties (especially viscosity) on heat transfer, evaluation of ratio between heat transfer on vertical and horizontal interface, influence of the pool dimensions. Finally, the analysis and interpretation of CLARA experiments are given comparison to the literature data, development of correlations concerning the heat transfer along the vertical and horizontal plate, comparison to results obtained with real materials.
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