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The Trigger Mechanism of Vapor Explosion

Yutaka ABE , Hideki NARIAI & Yukihiro HAMADA

To cite this article: Yutaka ABE , Hideki NARIAI & Yukihiro HAMADA (2002) The Trigger
Mechanism of Vapor Explosion, Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 39:8, 845-853, DOI:
10.1080/18811248.2002.9715268

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Journal of NUCLEAR SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY, Vol. 39, No. 8, p. 845–853 (August 2002)

The Trigger Mechanism of Vapor Explosion

Yutaka ABE1, ∗ , Hideki NARIAI1 and Yukihiro HAMADA2
1
Institute of Engineering Mechanics and Systems, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305-8573
2
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., 560-2 Okatsukoku, Atsugi-shi, Kanagawa 243-0192
(Received March 26, 2002 and accepted in revised form June 15, 2002)

In the present study, trigger mechanisms of the vapor explosion are experimentally investigated. The interfacial
behavior between high temperature molten liquid and low temperature water are experimentally investigated by using
a molten material droplet and external pressure pulse. As the results, it is indicated that spontaneous vapor explosion
hardly occur in high temperature water near saturation temperature since vapor film is stable. The vapor explosion can
occur even in high temperature water near saturation temperature in case that the external pressure pulse is applied to
high temperature molten material. Vapor explosion can not occur when the interfacial temperature between the molten
material and water is lower than the material melting temperature, even if the vapor film around the molten material
is collapsed by the external pressure pulse. It is clarified that the impossibility of the trigger process for the vapor
explosion can be judged by comparing the interfacial temperature and the molten material temperature. The results
obtained in the present experiments are applied to the results of the large-scale experiments using uranium dioxide. The
results indicate that the possibility of the vapor explosion of the uranium dioxide and water under the present LWR
operational condition is extremely unlikely. It should be noted that the present criteria should be applicable in case that
the melting temperature does not decrease by containing the metal component.
KEYWORDS: LWR reactors, severe accidents, vapor explosion, thermal-hydraulics, containment safety, trigger
mechanism, uranium dioxide, water, temperature dependence

I. Introduction the trigger mechanism is consist of many complex processes

During severe accident of a light water reactor (LWR), var-
ious thermal hydraulic phenomena including vapor explosion
could threaten the integrity of the containment vessel. The
occurrence of the severe accident is extremely unlikely since
LWRs are designed based on the defense-in-depth concept.
However, it is important to investigate the thermal hydraulic
phenomena including vapor explosion in order to evaluate the
safety margin and potential risk of the accident management
measures to prevent and mitigate the severe accident.1)
The process for the vapor explosion is proposed as shown
in Fig. 1 based on the thermal detonation model.2, 3) Accord-
ing to the process proposed, several processes should be se-
quentially satisfied. At first, the high temperature molten ma-
terial should coarsely mixed in water as many small droplets
with vapor film. Secondly, the vapor film should be collapsed
by internal or external disturbances. Thirdly, high temper-
ature fuel material should attach the water as molten liquid
at the water-molten material interface without solidification.
Fourthly, atomization of the high temperature molten material
should occur at the interface. Finally, ultra-fast heat transfer
and vapor generation causes very large pressure pulse. The
second and third process in Fig. 1 is so-called trigger process.
There are many experimental investigations about the trigger
mechanism.4–22)
It is pointed out that the vapor explosion is suppressed un-
der the conditions of (1) low subcool of coolant, (2) uranium
dioxide, (3) high pressure and (4) small amount of coolant on
the containment vessel floor. However, it is not identified yet
that the coolant subcooling and molten material properties af-
fect and suppress which process of the vapor explosion, since
∗
Corresponding author, Tel.&Fax. +81-298-53-5266, E-mail:
abe@kz.tsukuba.ac.jp
and it is very difficult to identify the dominant mechanism
for each process. It is necessary to conduct the experiment
to identify the dominant factor in each process to judge the
possibility of the vapor explosion in actual reactors.
In the present study, trigger mechanisms of the vapor ex-
plosion are experimentally investigated by conducting two
kinds of experiments to identify each process of the vapor
explosion. At first, the interfacial behavior between high tem-
perature molten liquid and low temperature water is experi-
mentally investigated by injecting different kinds of molten
material droplet into water. Secondly, pressure pulse is used
to collapse the vapor film on the molten droplets in water in
order to experimentally investigate the interaction between
molten droplet and water after the vapor film collapse. It is
necessary to collapse the vapor film to clarify the thermal hy-
draulic interaction between molten droplet and water, if the
vapor film on the molten droplet surface is highly stable. By
combining the results obtained from these two experiments,
one of the criteria is proposed to judge the possibility of the
vapor explosion in the actual light water reactors.
II. Experiment of Spontaneous Triggered Vapor Ex-
plosion of Single Droplet
1. Experimental Apparatus and Procedure
Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of the experimental
apparatus to investigate the interaction between a molten ma-
terial droplet and water. The experimental apparatus is com-
posed of three major components, that is, an electric furnace,
a water tank and a visual observation system. The electric fur-
nace can heat up the various metal materials above the melt-
ing temperature up to 1,200◦ C. In the present experiment,
tin, zinc, aluminum and lead are used as molten materials.

845
846
Fig. 1 Trigger process of vapor explosion
Fig. 2 Schematic diagram of melt droplet experimental apparatus
without external pressure pulse
Table 1 Experimental conditions
Sn Pb Zn Al
◦
Molten droplet ( C) 400–680 400–530 420–650 660–950
Water (◦ C) 30–70 30–70 30–70 30–70
(Note) Mass of the molten droplet is 5 g.
A fixed amount of molten material is placed in the unglazed
ceramic cup and is put into the electric furnace to be heated
above the melting temperature. The water depth in the tank
is kept at a constant depth. The water temperature is kept at
a constant and is monitored using a chromel-alumel thermo-
couple. After measure the temperature of the molten material
with a chromel-alumel thermocouple, the molten material is
dropped into the water pool in the tank. The molten material
submerged into the water as a molten droplet. The interaction
between a molten droplet and water is recorded with a high
speed video camera of maximum speed 40,500 fps. In this
experiment, there is no external trigger added to a molten ma-
terial droplet with vapor film. Table 1 shows the experimental
conditions of the molten droplet and water.
2. Experimental Results
Figure 3 shows the experimental results of the molten tin
droplet of 5 g into water. In the experiment, initial molten
tin temperature is 603◦ C and water temperature is 29◦ C. The
pressure around the molten tin is simultaneously measured.
The number in the above figure in Fig. 3 are corresponding
to the number in picture below in Fig. 3. There are two dis-
Y. ABE et al.
Fig. 3 Experimental result of molten tin and water interaction
without external pressure pulse
tinct pressure peaks at ③ 7.33 ms and ⑦ 10.66 ms. Initially
the molten tin droplet submerges into water to elongate be-
fore ② 6.0 ms. A local spontaneous triggered vapor explosion
of single droplet occurs at the bottom of the elongated molten
tin without external trigger at ③ 7.33 ms. Following the first
spontaneous explosion at time 7.33 ms, the second distinct
pressure peak of about 0.7 MPa is observed at ⑦ 10.66 ms. It
is observed from Fig. 3 that the molten tin droplet breaks into
smaller droplets during the time interval of these two distinct
peaks.
Same experiments as shown in Fig. 3 are conducted by
changing the molten tin temperature and water temperature.
Results are summarized in Fig. 4. Symbols of circles, tri-
angles and squares indicate the experiment observed sponta-
neous triggered vapor explosion of single droplet with high
pressure generation and molten droplet atomization. In the
experiments represented by the cross symbol, no spontaneous
triggered vapor explosion of single droplet is observed. It is
clarified from Fig. 4 that spontaneous triggered vapor explo-
sion of single droplet occurs in specified region of the molten
JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The Trigger Mechanism of Vapor Explosion 847

0 ~ 2cm 2 ~ 4cm
4~ 6cm 6 ~8cm
8 ~10cm 10~ 20cm
20cm
Noexplosion
Ti=TM Ti=THN
100
Water temperature (°C)

80

60

40

20

0
200 400 600 800
Hot liquid temperature (°C)
Fig. 4 Experimental results of thermal interaction zone for molten
tin and water

tin temperature and water temperature, so call thermal inter-

action zone (TIZ). That is, the spontaneous triggered vapor
explosion of single droplet can occur in lower water temper-
ature than about 50◦ C and in higher molten tin temperature
than the dotted line in Fig. 4. The dotted line in Fig. 4 in-
dicates that the interface temperature is melting temperature
of tin at the contact of the molten tin and water by the vapor
film collapse. The solid line in Fig. 4 indicates that interface
temperature is homogenous nucleation temperature of water
at the contact of the molten tin and water by the vapor film
collapse.
In the interaction between the molten tin droplet and water,
TIZ is clearly observed. On the other hand, the TIZ it is not
clearly observed for the interaction between different molten
material and water as shown in Fig. 5. Top figures in Fig. 5
show the result with molten lead, middle figures show the re-
sult with molten zinc and bottom figures show the result with
molten aluminum. The molten droplet temperatures for the
molten lead, the molten zinc and the molten aluminum are
497◦ C, 578◦ C and 710◦ C, respectively. Masses of droplets
are all 5 g. The water temperature is about 25◦ C. As seen in
top of Fig. 5, molten lead is fluidized to make large deforma-
tion in the water. On the other hand, molten aluminum droplet
does not make large deformation. The magnitude of the de-
formation of molten zinc is between lead and aluminum. All
of the molten droplets associate vapor film around them dur-
ing the experiment. No spontaneous vapor film collapse and
no large pressure generation suggesting the vapor explosion
are observed for the molten lead, zinc and aluminum in the
present experiment.
Figure 6 shows the pictures of the solidified molten mate-
rial collected after the experiment for the water temperature
30◦ C and 70◦ C. The molten tin into the water of 30◦ C frag-
ments into many small pieces. On the other hand, the molten
tin into the water of 70◦ C does not fragment but solidify into
a lump. The molten zinc and aluminum solidify a lump. Lead
solidifies into a lump and some fragments. The right hand
Fig. 5 Observation results of molten lead, zinc and aluminum in
water
side of the Fig. 6 show the measured particle size distribution
of solidified molten tin. It is very clear from the figure that
only molten tin into water of 30◦ C fragmented into very small
pieces smaller that 1 mm suggesting the vapor explosion.
It is clearly indicated from Fig. 6 that the physical condi-
tions for the vapor explosion are strictly restricted. That is, as
described in Fig. 1, the trigger for the vapor explosion needs
to achieve all of the processes shown in Fig. 7. If film boiling
is not established on the pre-mixed molten droplets, molten
droplets are cooled with violent boiling. On the other hand, if
film boiling on the molten droplet is highly stable, the molten
droplets are cooled without vapor explosion. It is necessary
for the progress of the vapor explosion both to establish the
film boiling on the particle surface and to collapse the film
boiling on the molten droplet. The film collapse is first thresh-
old for the trigger process of the vapor explosion. Even if the
vapor films on the molten droplet are collapsed, vapor explo-
sion could not occur in case that the droplet surface is solid-
ified at the contact between water and molten droplet. The
molten droplets should be contact with water as liquid condi-
tion after the film collapse in order to proceed the trigger pro-
cess of the vapor explosion. This is second threshold for the
trigger process of the vapor explosion. Furthermore, if molten
droplets are highly stable as liquid, atomization needed for the
high heat release does not occur. It is the third threshold for
the vapor explosion. All of the thresholds should be clear to
achieve the trigger condition of the vapor explosion. On the
other word, vapor explosion does not occur, if one of those

VOL. 39, NO. 8, AUGUST 2002

848
Fig. 6 Pictures of the solidified molten material and the size distribution of solidified tin
Pre-mixing
Film collapse Stable film boiling Violent boiling
Liquid-liquid contact Solid-liquid contact
Droplet Instability Stable droplet
No explosion
Atomization
Fig. 7 Schematic diagram of trigger process to vapor explosion
thresholds is not satisfied.
It is supposed that the effect of the water subcooling on the
vapor explosion as shown in Figs. 4 and 6 is dominated by
one of the thresholds mentioned above. If the stability of the
vapor film dominates the possibility of the vapor explosion
in high temperature water near saturation temperature, forced
collapse of the vapor film would causes vapor explosion even
in high temperature water near saturation temperature. If the
vapor explosion does not occur even when the vapor film is
externally collapsed, other thresholds should dominate the va-
por explosion.
III. Experiment of Vapor Explosion of Single
Droplet Triggered by External Pressure Pulse
1. Experimental Apparatus and Procedure
Based on the results shown in Figs. 2 through 7, a exper-
imental apparatus is constructed to investigate the possibil-
ity after the vapor film collapse by the external force. The
schematic diagram of the experimental procedure is shown
in Fig. 8. The water is filled in the test section at a constant
depth and a constant temperature. After the metal is heated up
Y. ABE et al.
to the specified temperature above the melting temperature by
the electric heater, the molten material is dropped into the wa-
ter pool. The molten material submerged into the water as a
molten droplet with vapor film. The external pressure pulse is
generated at the bottom of the test vessel by attacking a bul-
let to the piston placed at the bottom of the test section. The
experimental results is recorded with a high speed video cam-
era. The experimental conditions are same as in no external
trigger experiment.
It is expected that the vapor film on the molten droplet can
be collapsed with the external pressure pulse. By comparing
with no external trigger experiment as shown in Fig. 4, it is
possible to identify the effect of the stability of the vapor film
on the vapor explosion. That is, the present experiment shown
in Fig. 8 can eliminate the effect of the stable vapor film on
the vapor explosion.
Figure 9 shows the schematic diagram of the experimen-
tal apparatus. Test section is composed of the stainless steel
square vessel. Its inner dimension is 60 mm, thickness is
3 mm, and length is 700 mm. Polycarbonate plates for the
visual observation are installed on two sides of the test ves-
sel, front and back. Strain-gauge type pressure transducers
are installed on the center of a right-hand side of the vessel in
order to measure the pressure and to obtain the trigger signal
for high-speed video camera. The sheathed thermocouple to
measure the water temperature is inserted into the test ves-
sel. The same pressure pulse generator as shown in Fig. 8 is
located at the bottom of the test vessel. The pressure pulse is
generated by hitting the piston with a bullet driven by nitrogen
gas. The nitrogen gas flow is operated with electromagnetic
valve to obtain good repeatability.
Figure 10 shows the relationship between the magnitude
of the generated pressure pulse at the bottom of the pressure
vessel and the magnitude of the nitrogen gas pressure to drive
the bullet. A fixed amount of molten material is placed in the
unglazed ceramic cup and is put into the electric furnace to
be heated above the melting temperature. The electric fur-
nace of maximum temperature 1,200◦ C is used to heat up the
JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The Trigger Mechanism of Vapor Explosion 849

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 8 Experimental procedure for molten droplet with external pressure pulse

2. Experimental Results
Vapor explosion is not observed for the combination of
molten tin material and higher water temperature than about
50◦ C in case of no external pressure as shown in Fig. 4.
Figure 11 shows the experimental result of the interaction
between molten tin droplet and high temperature water with
external pressure pulse. The molten tin droplet temperature
is 570◦ C and water temperature is 67◦ C. Pressure pulse of
about 0.3 MPa is added to the molten tin droplet submerged
into the water. The external pressure pulse is measured at ②
4 ms. Large pressure pulse is generated at ⑦ 10 ms. Between
these two pressure peaks, it is clearly observed fragmentation

Fig. 9 Schematic diagram of experimental apparatus for molten

material with pressure pulse

2
Twater =22-25
Peak pressure (MPa)

1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2
N2 injection pressure (MPa)
Fig. 10 Relationship between generated pressure pulse and nitro-
gen gas pressure

metal material above the melting temperature. In the present

experiment, tin, zinc, aluminum and lead are used as molten Fig. 11 Molten tin and water interaction with external pulse
materials. (0.3 MPa)

VOL. 39, NO. 8, AUGUST 2002

850 Y. ABE et al.

of the molten tin. As shown in Fig. 4, vapor explosion is not

observed in the water temperature above 50◦ C without exter-
nal pressure. However, the result shown in Fig. 11 experimen-
tally demonstrates that the vapor explosion occurs if the vapor
film is collapsed by the external pressure pulse. The results
obtained from Figs. 4 and 11 are schematically summarized
in Fig. 12.
Same magnitude of the external pressure pulse as in Fig. 11
is added to the zinc and aluminum molten droplets submerged
in water as shown in Figs. 13 and 14. The water temperatures
are almost same as in Fig. 11. The pressure pulse observed
at times between ① and ② is supplied external pressure pulse.
There is no additional pressure pulse generation in Figs. 13
and 14, although late pressure pulse generation is observed in
Fig. 11 for the interaction of the molten tin droplet and water.
Atomization cannot be identified in Figs. 13 and 14, on the
contrary to the clear atomization as observed in Fig. 11.
The pressure pulse twice as large as in Figs. 13 through 14
is added to the zinc and aluminum molten droplets submerged
TC

TI=THN
Cold liquid temperature :T

TI=TM Present Exp. Fig. 14 Molten aluminum and water interaction with external
pressure pulse (0.3 MPa)

TIZ in the water as shown in Figs. 15 and 16. External pressure

Hot liquid temperature :T
TH
Fig. 12 Experimental results of thermal interaction zone for
molten tin and water with external pressure pulse
Fig. 13 Molten zinc and water interaction with external pressure
pulse (0.3 MPa)
pulse arrives at time between ① and ②. After external pres-
sure pulse arrives at the molten droplet, large pressure pulse
is generated indicating vapor explosion. These results indi-
cate that vapor explosion could occur if the vapor film is col-
lapsed. In the experiment with the lead, no vapor explosion is
observed in the present experimental conditions.
Figure 17 show the pictures of the solidified zinc and alu-
minum collected after the experiment with the external pres-
sure pulse. The experiments are conducted for the different
molten material temperatures and water temperatures. It is
clarified that solidified material is fragmented for the molten
material temperature higher than a specified temperature in-
dependent on the water temperature. The solidified materials
of lower molten material temperature are not fragmented in
dependent on the material and water temperature as shown in
Fig. 17.
The results shown in Fig. 17 are summarized as shown in
Fig. 18 as the relationship between molten material tempera-
ture and water temperature. The dotted line in Fig. 18 indi-
cates that the interface temperature is melting temperature at
the contact time of molten material and water. The solid line
in Fig. 18 indicates that interface temperature is homogenous
nucleation temperature at the contact time of molten material
and water. Vapor explosion must occur in higher temperature
region indicated by the solid line in Fig. 18 since only violent
boiling occur in the temperature region below the solid line in
Fig. 18. Furthermore, interface of the molten material is so-
lidified in the temperature region below dotted line in Fig. 18.
It is clear that the dotted line is lower than the solid line only
for tin. In the homogeneous temperature region, molten tin
never solidified. On the other hand, there is possibility for

JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The Trigger Mechanism of Vapor Explosion 851

Fig. 15 Molten zinc and water interaction with external pressure Fig. 16 Molten aluminum and water interaction with external
pulse (0.5 MPa) pressure pulse (0.5 MPa)

Fig. 17 Results of the atomization of solidified materials in water

VOL. 39, NO. 8, AUGUST 2002

852 Y. ABE et al.

Fig. 18 Temperature criteria of vapor explosion of molten droplet and water

molten lead, zinc and aluminum that solidification occurs at TI=THN TI=TM
Water temperature (°C)

the contact time of molten material and water. 100 Explosion Yes No
KROTOS (Al2O3)
80 ALPHA (Fe+Al2O3)
IV. Application to the Interaction between Molten
Uranium Dieoxide and Water FITS-B (Fe+Al2O3)
FITS-
FITS-B
60
From the above results, when the interface temperature be- 40
tween the molten material and water is lower than the melting
temperature and there is not so large external pressure pulse, 20
TM=2027 °C (Al2O3)
vapor explosion does not occur even if the vapor around the
0
molten material is collapsed. Figure 19 shows the large scale
0 1000 2000 3000 4000
experimental results13–22) and the relationship between inter-
Hot liquid temperature (°C )
face temperature and melting temperature of thermite (com-
pound of iron oxide and aluminum). In the experiments with TI=THN TI=TM
100
Water temperature (°C )

thermite, vapor explosions are observed. On the other hand, Explosion No

vapor explosion is not observed in the experiments with ura- KROTOS (Corium1)
80
FARO (Corium2)
nium dioxide. In the experiments with thermite, the molten COTELS (Corium3)
material temperature is near the temperature that the inter- 60
11.2.
.2. UO280wt%+ZrO 220wt%
face temperature is around melting temperature. On the other 40 3.
3. UO255wt%+ZrO25wt%+Zr24wt%+SS15wt%
hand, in the experiment with uranium dioxide, the molten ma-
terial temperature is near the temperature that the interface 20
temperature is lower than the melting temperature. The result TM=2847 °C (UO2)
0
indicates that molten uranium dioxide solidifies in the wa-
ter, even if the vapor film on the molten uranium dioxides 0 1000 2000 3000 4000

is collapsed. Essentially speaking, the temperature thresh- Hot liquid temperature (°C)
old shown in Fig. 19 is same as that proposed by Kondo for
Fig. 19 Temperature criteria of vapor explosion of molten uranium
the liquid-sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor,23) although the
dioxide and water
temperature range seems to be quite different since the phys-
ical and thermal properties are quite different between light
water reactors and the liquid-sodium-cooled fast breeder re-
low the value, since the core support plate cannot sustain such
actor.
high temperature material.24) It means that the possibility of
Estimated results of the severe accident sequence under
the vapor explosion of the uranium dioxide and water under
LWR operational condition indicates that the maximum tem-
the present LWR operational condition is extremely unlikely.
perature of the melted core material is below about 3,500◦ C
and the average temperature of the molten material is far be-

JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The Trigger Mechanism of Vapor Explosion
V. Conclusions
(1) Although it was pointed out that spontaneous vapor ex-
plosion hardly occur in high temperature water near sat-
uration temperature since vapor film is stable, the va-
por explosion can occur in case that the external pres-
sure pulse is applied to high temperature molten material
even in high temperature water near saturation.
(2) The trigger process for the vapor explosion can not be
satisfied when the interfacial temperature between the
molten material and water is lower than the material
melting temperature, even if the vapor film around the
molten material is collapsed by the external pressure
pulse.
(3) It is clarified that the impossibility of the trigger process
for the vapor explosion can be judged by comparing the
interfacial temperature and the molten material tempera-
ture.
(4) The criteria for the trigger process for the vapor explo-
sion obtained in the present experiments are applied to
the results of the large-scale experiments using uranium
dioxide. The results indicate that the possibility of the
vapor explosion of the uranium dioxide and water un-
der the present LWR operational condition is extremely
unlikely.
(5) It should be noted that the present criteria should be ap-
plicable in case that the melting temperature does not
decrease by containing the metal component.
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