Quench front progression in a superheated porous medium: experimental analysis and model development

Andrea Bachrata (1) , Florian Fichot (1) , Georges Repetto (1) , Michel Quintard (2) , Joëlle Fleurot (1)

1 IRSN - Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire
2 IMFT - Institut de mécanique des fluides de Toulouse

In case of severe accident in a nuclear reactor, the fuel rods may be highly damaged and oxidized and finally collapse to form a debris bed. Removal of decay heat from a debris bed is a challenging issue because of the difficulty for water to flow inside. Currently, IRSN has started experimental program PEARL with two experimental facilities PRELUDE and PEARL, to investigate the reflood process at high temperature, for various particle sizes. On the basis of PRELUDE experimental results, the thermal hydraulic features of the quench front have been analysed and the intensity of heat transfers was estimated. From a selection of experimental results, a reflooding model was improved and validated. The model is implemented in the code ICARE-CATHARE developed by IRSN which is used for severe accident reactor analysis.

Mots clés: Quench front progression; superheated porous medium; nuclear reactor; thermal hydraulics

Domaines: Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Andrea Bachrata, Florian Fichot, Georges Repetto, Michel Quintard, Joëlle Fleurot. Quench front progression in a superheated porous medium: experimental analysis and model development. NURETH 14 2011 14th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics, Sep 2011, Toronto, Canada. pp.0. ⟨hal-04028871⟩