Experimental and Analytical Study of the Particulate Debris Bed Self-leveling

Melt fragmentation, quenching and long term coolability in a deep pool of water under reactor vessel is employed as a severe accident (SA) mitigation strategy in several designs of light water reactors (LWR). Geometrical configuration of the debris bed is one of the factors which define if the decay heat can be removed from the debris bed by natural circulation. Boiling and two-phase flow inside the bed also serves as a source of mechanical energy which can reduce the height of the debris bed by so called “self-leveling” phenomenon. However, to be effective in providing a coolable geometrical configuration, self-leveling time scale has to be smaller than the time scale for drying out and onset of re-melting of the bed. This paper presents results of experimental and analytical studies concerning the self-leveling phenomenon. The goal of this work is to assess characteristic time scale of particulate debris spreading. In the experiments on the particulate debris spreading air injection at the bottom of the bed is used to simulate steam flow through the porous debris bed. A series of test have been carried out to study the influence of particles size and density, roughness of the spreading plate, gas flow rate etc. on particulate spreading. A semi-empirical model for predicting the spreading of particulate debris has been developed using experimental closures for debris mass flow rate as a function of local (i) angle of the bed and (ii) gas flux. The comparison between the model prediction and the experimental observations shows a good agreement.QC 20131216