G. Ciccarelli et Dl. Frost, FRAGMENTATION MECHANISMS BASED ON SINGLE DROP STEAM EXPLOSION EXPERIMENTS USING FLASH X-RAY RADIOGRAPHY, Nuclear Engineering and Design, 146(1-3), 1994, pp. 109-132
Flash X-ray and high-speed regular photography were used to investigat
e the fragmentation processes during the vapor explosion of single dro
ps of molten metal immersed in water. For relatively low ambient flow
velocities (< 5 m/s), a comparison of the breakup of hot and cold drop
s shows that whereas cold drops breakup due to the stripping of fragme
nts by the relative flow, the fragmentation of a hot drop is dominated
by the growth and collapse of a vapor bubble. X-ray radiographs show
during the growth of the bubble, that fine filaments of metal protrude
from the drop and the drop surface becomes highly convoluted. Using a
simple model for the bubble dynamics, an estimate of the energy budge
t shows that the majority (about 80%) of the thermal energy transfer o
ccurs during bubble collapse. For hot drops at higher flow velocities
(> 45 m/s), vapor bubble growth is diminished and high-speed motion of
vapor within the bubble leads to an enhanced fragmentation rate.