An experimental study on steam explosion of a small melt jet falling into a water pool

To address the mechanisms and influential factors of steam explosions which may occur during severe accidents in a nuclear power plant (NPP), the VULCAN apparatus is designed and built to investigate the characteristics of a steam explosion when molten material falls into a water pool. The test facility is composed of a high-speed measurement system and an induction furnace which enables preparation and delivery a small melt jet at temperature up to 1500 ℃. In the first campaign of tests, tin is employed as the simulant of melt material, and the steam explosion process and pressure signals of a small molten tin jet falling into a deep water pool are recorded by a high-speed camera and a high-frequency pressure sensor, respectively. Debris particles from part test are collected and sieved for analysis of morphology and size distribution of the particles. Multiple occurrences of steam explosion are observed during the traveling of the melt jet into the water pool, with several cycles of expansion–contraction in each occurrence of steam explosion. The time interval between two occurrences is around 80 ms and between two cycles is around 4 ms. For the melt mass ranging from 20 to 140 g in the present study, it is found that the number of steam explosion occurrences increases with the melt mass. Both the pressure impulse and the conversion ratio of steam explosion increase with melt mass. However, the pressure impulse and conversion ratio do not have a monotonic relation with melt superheat, and the conversion ratio increase with melt superheat when it is below a threshold (370℃), but decrease above the threshold.