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Multiphase Flow Dynamics 5 pp 575–592Cite as

Melt-Coolant Interaction

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Abstract

After the Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents the attention of the nuclear plant designers has been drown to understand in dept the physical processes behind accidents leading to violent core degradation. One important class of such processes is the interaction of molten nuclear material with the coolant water. The phenomenon of pouring hot liquid into cold liquid can be associated with violent interaction especially if the temperature of the hotter liquid is much higher than the boiling temperature of the colder liquid. That is why in the cooking it is not recommended to pour hot oil into cold water. There is variety of interaction modes ranging from steady cooling of millions of particles in a cubic meter in the nickel production for instance, where molten nickel is first fragmented and then pored into large water pools trough the violent detonation - if aluminum dioxide is injected into water with high velocity. All this type of interaction is some times designated with melt-water interaction, melt-coolant interaction (MCI), steam explosion etc. Some geologists believe that one of the volcano explosion modes is caused by the mixing of lava with water after earthquake. In any case for real nuclear plants the melt-coolant interaction has to be quantitatively estimated in order to realize the damage potential of such interactions and in this light to judge the strength of the structures and then to design mitigation measures. Volumes 1, 2 and 3 of this monograph contain the basics haw such complex physical phenomena can be mathematically described. The subject of this Chapter is to give some guides for practical use of all these methods.

Keywords

  • Joint Research
  • Steam Explosion
  • Vapor Generation
  • Reactor Pressure Vessel
  • Safety Technology

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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  1. Erlangen, Germany

    Nikolay Ivanov Kolev

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  1. Nikolay Ivanov Kolev
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Kolev, N.I. (2015). Melt-Coolant Interaction. In: Multiphase Flow Dynamics 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15156-4_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15156-4_14

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