Insoluble aerosol behavior inside the PCCS condenser tube under severe accident conditions

The passive containment cooling system (PCCS), which has been incorporated into the advanced light water reactor (ALWR) design, has the capability of post accident decay heat removal by means of natural force driven condensation heat transfer. Since some uncertainties remain in the PCCS performance during a severe accident especially in the amount of aerosol deposition which causes the heat transfer degradation, the experiment had been performed previously simulating single condenser tube, postulated steam and noncondensable gas flow rate using prototypical soluble aerosol (CsI). The observed aerosol deposition rate onto the condenser tube surface was quite small under steam rich condition. However, during the severe accident, insoluble aerosols such as structural material might also be released and flow into the PCCS as well as soluble aerosol, and the deposition behavior has not been clarified. Thus, the experiment using a polystyrene LATEX was conducted under the same conditions in which the soluble aerosol test was performed. The experimental results showed similar trend as that of the soluble aerosol case, and especially in case of steam rich condition, the amount of deposition was below detection limit. The deposition rate in other cases are consistent with the prediction by existing theoretical correlation. Analytical sensitivity study varying inlet flow condition indicated no significant increase of aerosol deposition. These results suggest promising performance of PCCS under severe accident condition