The effect of lateral flooding on the coolability of irregular core debris beds

Abstract The coolability of ex-vessel core debris is an important issue in the severe accident management strategy of, e.g. the Nordic boiling water reactors. In a core melt accident, the molten core material is expected to discharge into the containment and form a porous debris bed on the pedestal floor of a flooded lower drywell. The debris bed generates decay heat which must be removed by boiling in order to stabilize the debris bed and to prevent local dryout and possible re-melting of the material. The STYX test facility which consists of a cylindrical bed of irregular alumina particles has been used to investigate the effect of lateral coolant inflow on the dryout heat flux of the particle bed. The lateral flow was achieved by downcomers attached on the sides of the test rig. The downcomers provide coolant into the lower region of the bed by natural circulation. Both homogenous and stratified bed configurations have been examined. It was observed that the dryout heat flux is increased by 22–25% for the homogenous test bed compared to the case with no lateral flooding. For the stratified configuration with a fine particle layer on top of the bed, no significant increase in the dryout heat flux was observed. The experiments have been analyzed by using the MEWA-2D code. Models which include explicit consideration of gas–liquid friction were used in the calculations in order to realistically capture the lateral flow configuration.