THEFIS Test Simulation to Validate a Freezing Model of ASTERIA-SFR Core Disruptive Accident Analysis Code

Abstract

The mechanical consequences of core disruptive accidents (CDAs) are a major safety concern in sodium-cooled fast reactors. Once core disruption occurs, liquefied core materials rapidly disperse vertically and radially. The dispersed materials penetrate the pin bundles and control rod guide tubes (CRGTs) before freezing at the edge of the penetration zone as heat is transferred to surrounding structures. Such freezing phenomena can suppress the negative reactivity feedback of fuel dispersion. The discharge of core materials can be impeded, resulting in a molten core pool formation when tight blockages occur inside CRGTs due to frozen material. Accordingly, freezing phenomena of core materials play a key role in governing the mechanical consequences of a CDA. To validate a freezing model implemented in our CDA analysis code, ASTERIA-SFR, a preliminary simulation of the THEFIS RUN#1 test, was performed. The calculation results show that freezing on the structural wall and crust formation were key phenomena affecting the penetration behavior, and the structural heat transfer is an important parameter. A remarkable reduction of the heat transfer coefficient was required to reproduce the penetration length observed in the experiment. This suggests that the momentum exchange and flow regime at the leading edge as well as heat transfer should be well modeled to predict the freezing phenomena in rapidly evolving CDAs.