Experimental Study on Sodium Fire Combustion in a Columnar Flow

In the operation of the sodium-cooled fast reactor, the accident caused by the leakage and combustion of liquid sodium is common and frequent in sodium-related facilities. In this paper, an experimental study of sodium fire in a columnar flow was carried out to focus on the burning characteristics by analyzing the temperature fields in the burner. The injection of 250 °C liquid sodium was poured into a 7.9m3 volume stainless steel cylindrical burner to shape a sodium fire, the data of temperature fields in the burner have been collected by dozens of thermocouples which are laid in the combustion space and sodium collection plate. These results show that the sodium fire in a columnar flow is composed of the foregoing spray fire, subsequent centered columnar fire and pool fire on the collection plate. The temperature in the combustion space close to the burning sodium flow could maximally reaches up to 828 °C. The radial temperatures apart from the sodium flow are relatively low and generally about 175–330 °C. The maximum temperature of the burning sodium dropping on the collection plate rises in the position of Td10, about 579°C. This study is promising to evaluate the combustion characteristics, formation process and composing forms of the sodium fire in the sodium-related facilities.Copyright © 2014 by ASME