Direct contact condensation experiments for clarification of S/C temperature evolution during long term steam discharge

Severe accident codes study the thermo-hydraulics of the suppression chamber with a limited numbers of nodes, generally solving mass and energy equations and assuming perfect mixing conditions. In a long station black out the effect of the quencher's design might create local phenomena (e.g. stratification, hot-spots) which are hardly predicted by the current practices, resulting in mispredictions of the containment pressure evolution. In order to understand the effect of the quencher geometry, steam mass flux, water sub-cooling and air concentration the SWAM facility (Steam Water Air Mixing) at the SIET laboratory was employed performing around twenty different experiments, in conditions close to what is expected during the Fukushima Daiichi accident. The test facility (pool and pipes) is built with polycarbonate (transparent material) to ease the acquisition of the conventional and high-speed cameras. Vertically distributed thermocouples and high-frequency pressure measurements are employed to obtain quantitative values for phenomena investigation and future CFD validations. It was shown that experiments with pure steam and relatively large diameter holes induce chugging that enhances mixing in the pool. Once chugging ceases, because of the reduced sub-cooling, a hot water layer is created in the upper part of the pool. The presence of air in the pipe induces large stratification from the condition of large subcooling because of the limited mixing introduced in the region below the pipe mouth.