Development of a Multi-dimensional Analysis Methodology for Sodium-water Reaction Phenomena in a SFR Steam Generator

A sodium-water reaction (SWR) has been considered as one of the most important issues to be resolved for designing the steam generator and the related systems of a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR). In this study, the reasonable SWR analysis at the vicinity of the reaction zone was made by using the appropriate multi-dimensional thermo-hydraulic simulation with detailed chemical reaction model. Based on the investigation results for the capabilities of commercial CFD codes, CFX version 5.7 and its EDM chemical model were selected to simulate the chemically reacting flow with various phases and components. As results of this study, a reasonable methodology for the SWR analysis including detailed information for each phase and the components was provided with the two-dimensional fields of velocity, temperature, mass fraction, etc. In order to investigate the subsequent tube rupture behavior at the reaction zone, the effective method to evaluate the subsequent tube rupture behavior is also proposed by using the relationship between the wastage rate and the eroded tube thickness and is set up by considering allowable stress intensity for the conventional tube material. It is expected that the results of this study will contribute to improve the reliability of a steam generator for GEN-IV SFR in the future