Film boiling of R-11 on liquid metal surfaces

An interesting problem is the effect of an immiscible liquid heating surface on the process of film boiling. Such surfaces raise questions concerning interface stability to disturbances, effects of gas bubbling, and vapor explosions in layered systems. The specific motivation for this study was to investigate film boiling from a liquid surface with application to cooling of molten reactor core debris by an overlying pool of reactor coolant. To investigate this phenomenon, and apparatus consisting of a nominal six-inch diameter steel vessel to hold the liquid metal and boiling fluid was constructed; coolant reservoirs, heaters, controllers, and allied instrumentation were attached. A transient energy balance was performed on the liquid metal pool by a submerged assembly of microthermocouples in the liquid metal and an array of thermocouples on the wall of the test vessel. The thermocouple data were used to determine the boiling heat flux as well as the boiling superheat. On an average basis, the deviation between the prediction of the Berenson model and the experimental data was less than one percent when Berenson was corrected for thermal radiation effects. Evidence from visualization tests of R-11 in film boiling over molten metal pools to superheats in excess of 600 K supports this conclusion. 13 refs