5035 Numerical Study on Sodium-Water Reaction in Steam Generator of Fast Reactor

When a heat transfer tube fails in a steam generator of liquid sodium cooled fast reactor, highly pressurized water or steam inside the tube blows down into liquid sodium that exists in the shell side and thus the sodium-water reaction will occur. The reacting zone, in which high temperature appears and corrosive sodium compound such as sodium hydroxide (NaOH) exists, will affect a structural integrity of neighboring heat transfer tubes and shell structure. Hence, an investigation of the reacting zone in the sodium-water reaction phenomena is of great importance for safety evaluation in the steam generator. A numerical method of multi-dimensional and multi-phase thermal hydraulics coupled with the sodium-water reaction has been developed for this purpose. In the present paper. the influence of the initial pressure in the shell side on the reacting zone has been investigated numerically, as well as the geometric configuration of pin-bundles.