Screening calculations on the vessel lower head behaviour due to an in-vessel steam explosion

Marie-France Robbe (1) , Michel Lepareux (1) , Nicolas Vivien (2) , Gerard Cenerino (2)

1 DYN - Laboratoire d'études de DYNamique
2 IPSN - Institut de Protection et Sûreté Nucléaire

The mechanical consequences of a steam explosion on a PWR lower plenum vessel are estimated through a parametric study regarding the corium location, the kinetics to transfer the corium energy to the water and the water constitutive law.

Keywords: steam explosion; PWR; lower plenum vessel; corium; water; Europlexus

Domains: Modeling and Simulation; Solid mechanics [physics.class-ph]; Fluids mechanics [physics.class-ph]

Marie-France Robbe, Michel Lepareux, Nicolas Vivien, Gerard Cenerino. Screening calculations on the vessel lower head behaviour due to an in-vessel steam explosion. SMIRT 14 - 14th International Conference on Structural Mechanics In Reactor Technology, Aug 1997, Lyon, France. pp.451-458. ⟨cea-03120015⟩