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Development of Empirical Correlations for Assessment of the Value of the Conversion Coefficient of Postulated Steam Explosion under Severe Accident at VVER Reactor Plant

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Abstract

In the course of severe accidents (SA) with the core melting, such a phenomenon as the energetic interaction of the melt with the coolant (steam explosion) may occur, which threatens the reactor vessel integrity and can be a trigger for hydrogen explosion. One of the main parameters determining the power of a steam explosion is the conversion ratio CR (another common designation is δ). The CR is the melt energy fraction converted into mechanical work as a result of the postulated steam explosion. In this study, the results of more than 190 experiments simulating the melt–coolant interaction are considered using the prototype corium melt (TROI, FARO, KROTOS-KFC, ZREX, ANL) and the non-prototypical melts (KROTOS Huhtiniemi, MISTEE, SUW, WUMT, MIXA, EXPO-FITS, FITS, ALPHA, WFCI, etc.). On the basis of the results of this study, the dependences of the maximum value of the conversion ratio on the following parameters were obtained: the melt mass reduced to the coolant mass (Mm/Mf); the ratio of the reduced value of the coolant subcooling to the saturation temperature to the reduced value of the melt overheating above the melting temperature to the melting temperature (\(\overline {\Delta {{T}_{f}}} {\text{/}}\overline {\Delta {{T}_{m}}} \)); the ratio of components in the corium (Zr, UO2, and others). The dependences obtained are supposed to be used to specify existing semiempirical procedures for assessment of the power of steam explosions in order to decrease their conservativeness in the framework of safety justification for operating NPP and those to be designed with VVER reactor plants.

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Funding

This work was supported by ongoing institutional funding. No additional grants to carry out or direct this particular research were obtained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. JSC Gidropress Experimental Design Bureau, 142103, Podolsk, Moscow oblast, Russia

    A. V. Nikolaeva, V.V. Astakhov, A. V. Lityshev, S. I. Pantyushin & N. V. Sharyi

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  1. A. V. Nikolaeva
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  2. V.V. Astakhov
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  3. A. V. Lityshev
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  4. S. I. Pantyushin
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Correspondence to A. V. Nikolaeva.

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Translated by E. Smirnova

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Nikolaeva, A.V., Astakhov, V., Lityshev, A.V. et al. Development of Empirical Correlations for Assessment of the Value of the Conversion Coefficient of Postulated Steam Explosion under Severe Accident at VVER Reactor Plant. Phys. Atom. Nuclei 86, 1935–1942 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063778823080264

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