Mk. Meeks et al., Suppression of vapor explosions in a water-molten-tin system by augmentation of the void fraction, NUCL TECH, 129(1), 2000, pp. 69-81
Experiments were performed to determine the likelihood of a vapor explosion
when injecting an inert gas (nitrogen) and a coolant (water) into a pool o
f molten metal (tin) in a large-scale chamber (similar to 20 kg fuel). The
injection flow rates of the water and nitrogen gas were the principal exper
imental variables, with average water flow rates up to 0.05 x 10(-3) m(3)/s
and gas flow rates ranging from 0.33 x 10(-3) to 1.67 x 10(-3) m(3)/s. Of
35 successful experiments, 11 resulted in art explosive interaction, as det
ermined by audible signals, videotape, and accelerometer data. The main obj
ective of the investigation was to determine the existence of a boundary be
tween explosive and nonexplosive regions in the water-gas flow rate plane:
Such a boundary was indeed identified and approximated by a straight line.
Two experiments in which explosive interactions were obtained in the low wa
ter/gas flow regions after a relatively long time of coolant injection (sim
ilar to 5 to 10 s) demonstrate the hitherto undervalued importance of the t
emporal variable.