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Experimental demonstration of gas entrainment into liquid metals

Eckert, S.; Vogt, T.; Boden, S.; Shevchenko, N.; Gerbeth, G.

Entrainment of cover gas into the liquid metal coolant is one of the essential safety issues in the design of innovative liquid metal-cooled fast reactors. We present experimental studies of this phenomenon in low-melting metals. Ultrasonic and X-ray were considered as diagnostic tools for a visualization of gas entrainment at the free surface of the melt. Laboratory experiments were conducted using the eutectic alloy GaInSn which is liquid at room temperature. The vortex activated entrainment of air at the free surface of a rotating flow was disclosed by means of ultrasonic techniques. The X-ray radioscopy was used to visualize the behaviour of Argon bubbles inside a slit geometry. The measurements reveal distinct differences between water and GaInSn especially with respect to the process of bubble formation, the coalescence and the breakup of bubbles. Our results emphasize the importance of liquid metal experiments which are able to provide a suitable data base for numerical code validation.

Keywords: liquid metal fast reactor; gas entrainment; two-phase flow; ultrasound Doppler method; X-ray radioscopy

  • Lecture (Conference)
    International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles: Safe Technologies and Sustainable Scenarios (FR13), 04.-07.03.2013, Paris, France
  • Contribution to proceedings
    International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles: Safe Technologies and Sustainable Scenarios (FR13), 04.-07.03.2013, Paris, France
    IAEA-CN-199/289

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-18412
Publ.-Id: 18412