*The transient stratification of the corium pool in the lower plenum and its impact on the heat flux distribution on the outside of the reactor vessel is analyzed in this work.* *A method* *to predict the kinetic corium pool structure is proposed* *which takes into accounts both thermo-chemical equilibrium and the density evaluation of the corium. It was implemented to analyze the transient stratification of the corium pool formed after a large loss of coolant accident (LLOCA) and a station blackout (SBO) accident respectively for ACP1000 nuclear power plant in China. The transient configurations of the corium pool have been determined for the dominant moments that the amount of molten materials increased obviously. The analysis results shown that a three-layer formation is highly possible for a sequence that a two-layer pool formed in the previous moment with a heavy metal layer on the bottom and the density of molten materials added at the next moment is less than that of the heavy metal layer which was formed previously. The heat flux on the outside of vessel wall faced a thin top metal phase and the potential vessel failure at this point are both high if a three-layer pool occurred and pose a great threat to the integrity of the pressure vessel.*


Analysis of Transient Corium Pool Structure in the Lower Plenum of Reactor Vessel

Division / Sponsors: 
Power Division & Nuclear Engineering Division (NED)

Power Conference
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/POWER/POWER2020/volume/83747

International Conference on Nuclear Engineering
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ICONE/ICONE2020/volume/83761

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