CORVIS - INVESTIGATION OF LIGHT-WATER REACTOR LOWER HEAD FAILURE MODES

The project CORVIS (Cerium Reactor Vessel Interaction Studies) is a re search programme for the experimental and analytical investigation of a possible failure of the pressure vessel of a light water reactor dur ing an assumed core melt accident. The applied methods of the experime ntal technique, the metallurgical investigations and the computational analysis are described. Two recent melting experiments are presented in detail. The first experiment was carried out on a steel, plate 100 mm thick representing a pressure vessel lower head without penetration s. The second experiment was performed on a steel plate of the same th ickness but representing a boiling water reactor lower head carrying a tube penetration in the form of a drain line. Reported are the phenom enology of these experiments, the results of the metallurgical post-te st examinations and the computational reconstruction of the observed h eat transfer and ablation phenomena in a stagnant and in a turbulent m elt. Further, the results of three earlier tests, on a smaller scale, are presented. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.