Takahiro Arai

Early construction and operation of the highly contaminated water treatment system in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (IV) - Assessment of hydrogen behavior in stored Cs adsorption vessel

Hydrogen diffusion behavior in a cesium adsorption vessel is assessed. The vessel is used to remove radioactive substance from contaminated water, which is proceeded from Fukushima accident. Experiment and numerical calculation are conducted to clarify the characteristics of natural circulation in the vessel. The natural circulation arising from the temperature difference between inside and outside the vessel is confirmed. We develop an evaluation model to predict the natural circulation and its prediction agrees well with the results obtained by the experiment and the calculation. Using the model, we predict steady and transient behavior of hydrogen concentration. Results indicate that hydrogen concentration is kept lower than the flammability limit when the short vent pipe is open.

Effect of Two-Phase Flow Structure in Decontamination Factor of Filtered Containment Venting System

In order to gain the best use of filtered containment venting systems (FCVSs), the decomtamination factor of FCVSs is to be investigated as a function of system parameter including steam flow rate, pressure, temperature, water level, and operating time. A full-height test facilities were designed and constructed in Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), Japan to evaluate the decontamination factor (DF) in FCVSs. The target types are the orifice and the venturi FCVSs. The height and the internal diameter of the cylindrical test vessel is 8 m and 0.5 m. Bubbly flows were visualized through the view window up to 0.8 MPa and 170 °C. Steam bubbles in 0.2 wt% sodium thiosulfate and 0.5 wt% sodium hydroxide were found to be much smaller than those in water. The DF were evaluated for the aerosol, elemental iodine and organic iodine. The installed aerosol optical spectrometer measures the number density and the diameter of aerosols. The concentrations of elemental iodine were quantified with an inductively-coupled plasma with mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The concentration of organic iodine was quantified with a gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In order to investigate two-phase flow dynamics in the vessel, separate effect tests were conducted with air-water test facility. The height of cylindrical test vessel is 8 m. Visual observation was conducted for two internal diameter levels: 0.05 and 0.5 m. High speed video frames were recorded through the transparent (acrylic) vessel wall. Wire-Mesh Sensors (WMS) were installed to acquire a cross-sectional void fraction to compare with DF in the facility. On the basis of the obtained database, we develop the FCVSs performance evaluation technique and propose an optimal FCVSs operation method for a further safety improvements of the nuclear power plant.© 2014 ASME

Visual Observation of Fine-Scale Mixing Morphology During Vapor Explosion and Droplet Entrapping Processes

The successive stages of vapor explosion were video-framed with an exposure time of 500 ns. In order to attain good repeatability and visibility, a smooth round water droplet was impinged onto a molten alloy surface. This configuration suppresses pre-mixing process prior to triggering of vapor explosion. The cluster of bubble generated by spontaneous bubble-nucleation covered the whole contact area at 0.1 ms after the impingement. Prominent fine mixing between two liquids were found to start at 0.6 ms that resulting in vapor explosion. Droplet entrapping phenomenon frequently occurred on an oxide layer, since coherent mixing was prevented due to unevenly formed oxide layer.Copyright

Effects of Mechanical Constraint and Heat Capacity on Vapor Explosions

Small-scale experiments have been conducted to investigate the triggering mechanism of vapor explosions. In order to attain good repeatability and visibility, a smooth round water droplet was impinged onto a molten alloy surface. This configuration suppresses premixing events prior to triggering. The effect of the water droplet curvature was found to be negligibly small when the droplet diameter is larger than 4.5 mm. Vapor explosion conditions were identical for the molten tin pool depths ranging from 0.5 to 40 mm. The experimental results and the heat conduction analysis suggest that the length scale required for atomizing and fine mixing in the triggering event of the vapor explosion are sufficiently smaller than the molten tin pool depth of 0.5 mm. Six different kinds of materials were used as the pool liquid. The lower limit of the contact temperature in the vapor explosion region closely agrees with the spontaneous nucleation temperature of water. The upper limit of the initial molten alloy temperature decreases when an oxide layer forms on the surface causing an increase of the emissivity of thermal radiation that has a stabilizing effect on the vapor film. When an oxide layer formed on the surface, a water droplet was occasionally entrapped into a molten alloy dome, since the oxide layer prevents the droplet from evaporating coherently. The vapor explosion region obtained for the mirror surface is a conservative estimate, since that for the oxide surface fell into the internal region of mirror surface.Copyright

Development of a Multi-Dimensional Measurement Sensor of Void Fraction and Phasic Velocity for Boiling Two-Phase Flow in a 5×5 Heated Rod Bundle

A subchannel void sensor (SCVS) was developed to measure the cross-sectional distribution of a void fraction in a 5×5 heated rod bundle with o.d. 10 mm and heated length 2000 mm, and applied in a boiling two-phase flow experiment under the atmospheric conditions assumed in an accident and spent fuel pool. The SCVS comprises 6-wire by 6-wire and 5-rod by 5-rod electrodes. Wire electrodes 0.2 mm in diameter are arranged in latticed patterns between the rod bundle, while a conductance value in a region near one wire and another gives a local void fraction in the central-subchannel region. 32 points (= 6×6−4) of the local void fraction can be obtained as a cross-sectional distribution. In addition, a local void fraction near the rod surface can be estimated by a conductance value in a region near one wire and one rod using the simulated fuel rods as rod electrodes, which allows 100 additional points (=4×25) of the local void fraction to be acquired. The devised sensors are installed at five height levels to acquire two-phase flow dynamics in an axial direction. A pair of SCVS is mounted at each level and placed 30 mm apart to estimate the one-dimensional phasic velocity distribution based on the cross-correlation analysis of both layers. The time resolution of void measurement exceeds 800 frames (cross-sections) per second. The heated rod bundle has an axially and radially uniform power profile, and eight pairs of sheath thermocouples are embedded on the heated rod to monitor its surface temperature distribution. The boiling two-phase flow experiment, which simulated a boil-off process, was conducted with the devised SCVS and experimental data was acquired under various experimental conditions, such as inlet-flow velocity, rod-bundle power and inlet subcooling. The experimental results exhibited axial and radial distribution of two-phase flow structures, i.e. void-fraction and phasic-velocity distributions quantitatively.Copyright

Effect of Nanofluid on the Film Boiling Behavior at Vapor Film Collapse

A high-temperature stainless-steel sphere was immersed into Al2 O3 nanofluid to investigate film boiling heat transfer and collapse of vapor film. Surface temperature is referred to the measured value of thermocouples embedded into and welded onto a surface of the sphere. A direct contact between the immersed sphere and Al2 O3 nanofluids is quantified by the acquired electric conductivity. The Al2 O3 nanofluid concentration is varied from 0.024 to 1.3 vol%. A film boiling heat transfer rate of Al2 O3 nanofluid is almost the same or slightly lower than that of water. A quenching temperature rises slightly with increased the Al2 O3 nanofluid concentrations. In both water and Al2 O3 nanofluid, the direct contact signals between the sphere and coolant were not detected before vapor film collapse.Copyright

Effect of Hydrated Salt Additives on Film Boiling Behavior at Vapor Film Collapse

A high-temperature stainless steel sphere was immersed into various salt solutions to investigate film boiling behavior at vapor film collapse. The film boiling behavior around the sphere was observed with a high-speed digital-video camera. Because the salt additives enhance the condensation heat transfer, the observed vapor film was thinner. The surface temperature of the sphere was measured. Salt additives increased the quenching (vapor film collapse) temperature because the frequency of direct contact between the sphere surface and the coolant increased. Quenching temperature increases with increased salt concentration. The quenching temperature, however, approaches a constant value when the salt concentration is close to its saturation concentration. The quenching temperature is well correlated with ion molar concentration, which is a number density of ions, regardless of the type of hydrated salts.

Visual Observation of Ultra-fast Heat Transfer Behavior on Base-triggered Vapor Explosion

Spontaneous vapor explosion can occur when a layer of the high temperature molten material lies on the water pool or on the moisture floor. This is so-called base-triggered vapor explosion. The base-triggered vapor explosion is supposed to occur in the case of a severe accident in various facilities. It is very important to clarify the base-triggered vapor explosion from the viewpoints of the prediction and the prevention of the vapor explosion. In order to evaluate the behavior of the base-triggered vapor explosion, the experimental apparatus is designed and constructed. The experiments using U-Alloy95 as a simulating substance are conducted. Consequently, the behavior of the molten material can be observed in detail with this experimental apparatus. The behavior of the molten material at the vapor explosion is evaluated by image analysis. Based on the analysis results, conversion ratio, which is defined as ratio of the kinetic energy at the vapor explosion to the initial thermal energy, is evaluated.

Study on Micro-Mechanism of Base-Triggered Vapor Explosion

Spontaneous vapor explosion can occur when a layer of the high temperature molten material lies on the water pool or on the moisture floor. This is so-called base-triggered vapor explosion. The base-triggered vapor explosion is supposed to occur in the case of a severe accident in a nuclear reactor and in other industrial facilities. It is very important to clarify the occurrence condition and possibility of the base-triggered vapor explosion from the viewpoints of the prediction and the prevention of the vapor explosion. In order to evaluate the occurrence conditions and to clarify the micro-mechanism of the base-triggered vapor explosion, the experimental apparatus to observe the base-triggered vapor explosion from the bottom of the floor to above is designed and constructed. The experiments using U-Alloy95 as a simulant material are conducted. Consequently, the microscopic behavior at the interface between the molten material and water can be observed in detail with this experimental apparatus. The PIV analysis is conducted to the visual observation data obtained on the experiments in order to evaluate the overall behavior of molten material. The digital auto-correlation method is also applied to the visual observation data in order to evaluate the interfacial shape and the velocity distribution at the interface between the molten material and water. And blowout velocity of the molten material at vapor explosion is evaluated from the visual data obtained on the experiment. The generated pressure at the vapor explosion is estimated by using the blowout velocity. In addition, the experimental results are compared with the thermal interaction zone (TIZ) theory.Copyright