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A study on concrete degradation during molten core/concrete interactions

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Nuclear Engineering and Design 236 (2006) 2237—2244 www.elsevier.com/locat&nucengdes

A study on concrete degradation during molten core/concrete interactions

Yu Maruyamaa, Yoshihiro Kojimaa, Mika Taharaa, Hideo Nagasakaa, Masami Katoa, *
Alexander A. Kolodeshnikovb, Vladimir S. Zhdanovb, Yuri S. Vassilievb
a Safety Standard Division, Japan Nuclear Energy Safrty Organization, 3-17-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0001, Japan
b National Nuclear Center, Atomic Energy institute, 10 Krasnoarineiskaya Street, Kurchatov City 490060, Kazakhstan
Received 1 January 2004; received in revised form 15 March 2006; accepted 20 March 2006
Abstract
A series of MCCI tests was performed in COTELS project at NUPEC to examine concrete degradation characteristics during MCCI with and
without water addition onto the debris. Molten stainless steel or a mixture composed of UO2, ZrO2, Zr and stainless steel was slumped into a two-
dimensional concrete trap, where volumetric decay heat generation was simulated by an induction heating technique. The results of dry MCCI tests
implied that concrete ablation was dominated by melting of aggregates when the debris was crusted and cement was thermally weaker than
aggregates. Without presence of stable crust, unmolten aggregates were possible to relocate upward due to the density difference from the debris.
Concrete responses under a wet condition showed a tendency that water migrated into thermally degraded concrete. A preliminary water migration
model was incorporated into COCO code for transient heat conduction. The prediction by COCO code agreed with the tendency of concrete thermal
responses observed in the dry and wet MCCI tests.
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
E-mail address: kato-masami@jnes.go.jp (M. Kato).
Present address: Thermohydraulic Safety Research Group, Nuclear Safety Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 2-4 Shirane, Shirakata, Tokaimura, Naka-
gun, Ibaraki-ken 319-1195, Japan. 2 Present address: Safety Engineering Group, System Design and Engineering Department, Isogo Nuclear Engineering Center,
TOSHIBA Corporation Power Systems Company, 8 Shinsugita-Cho, Isogo-Ku, Yokohama 235-8523, Japan.
Present address: Plant & System Analysis Technology Group, Nuclear System Analysis Technology R & D Department, Power & Industrial Systems Research &
Development Center, TOSHIBA Corporation Power Systems Company, 8 Shinsugita-Cho, Isogo-Ku, Yokohama 235-8523, Japan.
0029-5493/$ — see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The molten core material (hereinafter, referred to as debris) is accumulated on the lower head of a reactor pressure vessel (RPV) in
the course of a severe accident of a light water reactor (LWR). In case that a thermal load from the debris exceeds the material
allowable limit, the lower head fails to release the debris into a reactor containment vessel (RCV). The debris release to the RCV
could result in threats to the RCV integrity due to thermal interactions of the debris with structural materials. A debris interaction with
concrete (MCCI: molten core/concrete interaction) is one of the most important LWR safety issues since MCCI is possible to cause
the following phenomena:
(1) Pressurization of the RCV by long-term release of noncondensable gases.
(2) Ablation of concrete basemat.
(3) Ablation of concrete side wall to degrade its capability as an RPV supporting structure.
Water addition onto the debris as an accident management measure has been proposed for suppression of MCCI. In order to assess the
progression of MCCI and the debris coolability by the water addition (ex-vessel debris coolability), quantification is needed for the
following phenomena under various conditions expected during severe accidents:
(1) Heat transfer from the debris to boundaries in downward, sideward and upward directions (power split) and resulting concrete
thermal degradation.
(2) Heat removal capability of the overlying water layer.
Experimental studies on MCCI with water addition have been actively performed at Sandia National Laboratories (Blose et al., 1987,
1993; Copus, 1992) and Argonne National Laboratory (Sehgal and Spencer, 1992; Spencer et al., 1992; Farmer et al., 2000), and
related analytical codes are being developed such as CORCON (Bradley et al., 1993), WECHSL (Foit et al., 1995), and
CORQUENCH (Farmer and Spencer, 2000; Farmer, 2001). Those studies furnished valuable knowledge on MCCI and the ex-vessel
debris coolability. However, most experiments were performed in one-dimensional geometry where only the base- mat was made of
concrete. In addition, quantification of debris cooling mechanisms identified in the experiments has not been made because of the lack
of information and the complexity of phenomena. Hence, MCCI and the ex-vessel debris coolability are still unresolved issues for
operating commercial LWRs. This became a motivation for the initiation of an international cooperative research on those issues
managed by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (Farmer et
al., 2001).
Two-dimensional MCCI tests with and without water addition were carried out in the COTELS project (Nagasaka et al., 2000a,b;
Zhdanov et al., 2000), as a joint study between the Nuclear Power Engineering Corporation (NUPEC) and the National Nuclear
Center (NNC) of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Recent COTELS MCCI tests focused on clarifying the following items, which are
currently uncertain and could affect the MCCI progression under dry and wet conditions:
(1) Influences of crust presence at the bottom and side surfaces of the debris on the thermal degradation of concrete.
(2) Cooling capability of the overlying water for suppression of thermal degradation of side wall concrete.
In addition to the MCCI tests, modeling for side wall cooling has been made and a preliminary model was incorporated into the
COCO code for transient heat conduction developed at NUPEC (Maruyama et al., 2002a,b). The present paper summarizes findings
obtained from the recent COTELS MCCI tests and the analytical studies with the COCO code.
2. Description of COTELS MCCI tests
2.1. Test facility
The schematic diagram of the MCCI test facility in COTELS project is illustrated in Fig. 1. The facility was mainly composed of an
electric melt furnace (EMF), a concrete trap, an induction heater, a water supply system and a melt receiver (MR) as a pressure vessel
to place the concrete trap. A debris simulant with a composition of UO2, ZrO2, Zr and stainless steel, or stainless steel only was
loaded in the EMF, and molten by indirect induction heating using a susceptive crucible made of graphite with a tantalum inner layer.
When the debris temperature was elevated up to a specified value, the debris was gravitationally slumped into the concrete trap. The
induction heating for the concrete trap to simulate volumetric heat generation of the debris was activated within a short period of time
after the debris slump. The MR was a horizontally placed cylindrically shaped vessel, having an inner diameter of 1.8 m, a horizontal
length of 2.5 m and a wall thickness of 30mm. The MR inner surface was covered with a layer of thermal insulator to minimize heat
loss. The inner volume of the EMF and the MR was purged by argon before tests.

Induction Coil Concrete Trap

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram for test facility in COTELS MCCI tests. Fig. 2. Structure and major dimension of concrete trap.
The concrete trap applied in the tests had an inner diameter of 0.26 or 0.36 m. Two different structures were prepared, one of which
was a general type made of concrete with basaltic aggregates. The structure and major dimension for this type of concrete trap is
shown in Fig. 2 along with coordinates for thermocouple positions. In another type, the inner layer of the concrete trap was formed by
mortar without coarse aggregates. Thermocouples are embedded in the concrete traps to measure temperature and to trace the ablation
front. Thermocouple positions in concrete traps are different in each test.
2.2. Test conditions
The major test conditions are summarized in Table 1. The initial debris temperatures were values measured in the EMF by a
pyrometer immediately before the debris slump to the concrete traps. The debris composition in the table except D6 simulated that
expected in a severe accident of a boiling water reactor. Stainless steel melt as a debris simulant was used in D-6 test. Water injection
onto the debris was not made except in the D-2 test in order to exclude phenomenological complexity. By comparing these tests,
influences of crust presence at the debris surface and the water addition on the concrete thermal degradation can be examined.
The heating efficiency of the induction heater for the D2, D-8a and D-9 tests was estimated to be 10 through 25% based on the results
of previous COTELS MCCI tests (Nagasaka et al., 2000b), in which MCCI was suppressed by the water addition and steady state heat
flux from the debris to the overlying water pool was measured. Almost all the heat from the induction heater to the debris in those
tests was transferred to the overlying water. With results of a separate test where a stainless steel block was heated by the induction
heater, the heating efficiency for the D-6 test was approximately 30%.
Table 1 Major conditions of COTELS MCCI tests
Test no.
D-2 D-6 D-8a D-9
Debris composition (%)
UO2 55 0 55 55
ZrO2 5 0 5 5
Zr 25 0 25 25 25
SUSa 15 100 15 15
Debris mass (kg) 48 59 54 57
Collapsed depth of debrisb (m) 0.121 0.089 0.136 0.143
Initial debris temperaturec (K) 3120 2170 3270 2620
Concrete type Basaltic concrete Basaltic concrete Basaltic concrete Mortar
Inner diameter of concrete trap (m) 0.26 0.36 0.26
Gross heat input (kW) 90 80 75 50
Initial MR pressure (MPa) 0.3
Water injection conditions
Type Jet No water injection No water injection No water injection
Delay (mm) 9 - - -
Flow rate (kg/s) 0.03 - - -
Temperature (K) 298 - - -
a Stainless steel
b Assumed density: 6500 rg/m3 (D-6), 7500 kg/m3 (other tests)
c Measured by pyrometer
3. Test results and discussions
The comparison of the basemat ablation depth between D-8a and D-9 tests is plotted in Fig. 3. Because of the difference in the net
induction heat input to the debris in both tests, the integrated induction heat added to the initial sensible heat (corresponding to the
temperature decrease from the initial temperature to the melting point of concrete assumed at approximately 1500 K) was used as the
horizontal axis. A larger ablation depth was observed in D-9 test where the inner surface of the concrete trap was covered with a
mortar layer.
Fig. 3. Comparison of basemat ablation depth between D-8a and D-9 tests.
A cross-sectional view of the concrete trap for D-8a test is shown in Fig. 4. It was confirmed that a layer of degraded concrete
including once-molten material was formed immediately below the solidified debris as was observed in the previous COTELS MCCI
tests (Nagasaka et al., 2000b; Zhdanov et al., 2000) The degraded concrete layer contained a large number of unmolten fine
aggregates. On the other hand, as shown in Fig. 5 for D-9 test, a layer of once-molten mortar with unmolten fine aggregates was
accumulated on the solidified debris. This indicated that the molten mortar was pushed out by the heavier crusted debris to the top of
the debris. The comparison between D-8a and D-9 tests implied that, with coarse aggregates, the downward relocation of the
solidifying debris could be dominated by melting of coarse aggregates when the aggregates are thermally more stable than cement.
Initial inner surface Initial mortar inner surface Slag layer

Solidified debris Initial mortar outer surface Solidified debris

Fig. 4. Cross-sectional view of concrete trap after D-8a test Fig. 5. Cross-sectional view of concrete trap after D-9 test
A separate small-scale test was conducted in order to qualitatively confirm a difference in the melting temperature range between
cement and aggregates used in the present tests. A concrete sample was heated up to 1623 K in the small-scale test, in which the
cement was completely molten and the aggregates remained in a solid state.

Fig. 6. Comparison of basemat ablation depth between D-6 and D-8a tests Fig. 7. Cross-sectional view of upper slag layer formed in D-6 test
The comparison of the basemat ablation depth between D-6 and D-8a tests is shown in Fig. 6. The larger ablation in the D-6 test could
be attributed to the higher thermal conductivity and lower melting temperature of stainless steel than of the debris in the D-8a test, by
which a stable crust was not formed. In case of no crust presence, it is anticipated that unmolten aggregates are possible to easily
relocate upward due to the density difference from the debris when cement surrounding aggregates is thermally degraded. As shown
in Fig. 7 for the upper slag layer rested on the stainless steel in the D-6 test, a large number of unmolten coarse and fine aggregates
were mixed.
The temperature histories measured in the side wall of the concrete traps for D-2 and D-8a tests are shown in Figs. 8 and 9,
respectively. When water was injected onto the debris in D-2 test, the side wall temperature was gradually decreased following the
sharp temperature increase before. As a result, the ablation depth of the concrete trap in the D-2 test was much smaller than in the D-
8a test. It was considered that, in the D-2 test, the injected water migrated into the thermally degraded concrete side wall. The reason
for this consideration is that, when heated, concrete becomes porous due to the release of concrete decomposed gases to form water
flow paths.
 Fig. 8. Temperature history in side wall of concrete trap for D-2 test Fig. 9. Temperature history in side wall of concrete trap for D-8a test
A preliminary model to evaluate influences of the water migration into concrete was incorporated into a computer code for transient
heat conduction in axi-symmetric two-dimensional geometry, COCO, developed at NUPEC (Maruyama et al., 2002a; Nuclear Power
Engineering Corporation, 2002, 2003a,b) and applied to a series of analyses for COTELS MCCI tests. Transient heat conduction in
debris and concrete is solved in COCO code with a fully implicit finite difference scheme. Since convective heat transfer is not taken
into account, the application of COCO code is limited to cases in which the solid fraction of debris is high enough. Several
correlations and models have been incorporated for concrete-decomposed gas generation, oxidation of metallic debris by concrete
decomposed gases and SiO2, boiling and thermal radiation on the debris upper surface, and so on. The concrete temperature is
calculated in COCO code by applying temperature-dependent thermal conductivity of concrete and effective thermal conductivity of a
packed bed with Kunii and Smith correlation (Kunii and Smith, 1960). In the present analysis, the thermal conductivity of concrete
was based on the Missenard model (Missenard, 1965), and the Kunii and Smith correlation was applied for concrete volumes whose
temperature was higher than the solidus temperature of concrete.
The water migration model is schematically illustrated in Fig. 10. The model is one-dimensional and based on a countercurrent flow
limitation (CCFL) criterion for a gas-liquid two- phase flow in a porous layer. A water migration depth is evaluated in each time step
so as to satisfy a CCFL correlation and mass and energy conservation equations at the entrance of the porous layer (Maruyama et al.,
2002b, 2003). It was assumed in the present analysis that concrete became porous and water could migrate into concrete when
temperature exceeded 440 K, above which free water in concrete was considered to evaporate.
The porosity of the porous layer is necessary to be specified. Based on the mass fraction of water in concrete and a difference in
concrete density before and after the CO2 release, the porosity is estimated to be 0.1 at 440 K (evaporation of free water), 0.13 at 700
K (evaporation of chemically bonded water) and 0.15 at 1100K (CO2 release) for basaltic concrete. The porosity becomes
approximately 0.25 if molten cement relocates to the debris and aggregates remain in a solid state (volume fraction of cement in the
present concrete is approximately 0.25). In the present analysis, the porosity of the porous layer was assumed to be constant at 0.1.
The porous layer is replaced by a packed bed of particles having the same porosity and specific surface area with the porous layer.
The specific surface area, Sc, is estimated by the following equations using an equivalent particle diameter of the packed bed, De:
6 f ht (1 − ε ) ,
Se = (1)
De
D pore (1 − ε )
De = , (2)
ε
where Dpore and ε are the diameter of pores in the porous layer and porosity, respectively. The constant, fht, is introduced in order to
take into account the existence of closed pores, into which water cannot migrate. In the present analysis, De and fht were set to 0.9mm
and 0.05, respectively. It is noted that ε, De (or Dpore) and fht have large uncertainties and those parameters should be examined further
in order to improve the water migration model.
The following correlation for CCFL and the mass conservation equation are applied in the present model:
j g*(1 2 ) + jl*(1 2 ) = 0.755 , (3)

ρ g u g = ρ l ul , (4)
where
12
⎡ ρg ⎤
j = ug ⎢
*
⎥ ,
⎢⎣ gDh (ρ l − ρ g )⎥⎦
g
(5)

12
⎡ ρl ⎤
j = ul ⎢
*
⎥ ,
⎣⎢ gDh (ρ l − ρ g )⎦⎥
l
(6)

u g = uv + ucd , (7)

where, u, g, Dh and ρ mean superficial velocity, gravitational acceleration, hydraulic equivalent diameter of porous layer and density,
and subscripts ‘g’, ‘1’, ‘v’ and cd denote gas, water, vapor and concrete decomposed gas, respectively. The hydraulic equivalent
diameter is estimated by the following equation:
 2εDe
Dh = . (8)
3(1 − ε )
Based on this modeling, the migration depth can be evaluated from the evaporation of water along this length and the gas flow,
yielding ug at top and ul from Eq. (4). The requirement of Eq. (3) then defines the limiting length. Water migration paths in the
thermally degraded concrete are expected to be narrow. Thus, the CCFL correlation could also be substituted by the momentum
equations of the liquid and gas phases based on Darcy’s law. The permeability of the degraded concrete as a physical parameter
(Hardee and Nilson, 1977; Jones et al., 1984) has then to be specified, together with relative permeabilities for the respective phases.
However, here the method via the CCFL criterion is chosen.
The vapor superficial velocity at the entrance of the porous layer is evaluated by summation of the vapor generation rate in water-
migrated cells. The following energy balance equation is used for the vapor generation rate in cells:

∑∑ (q
cell cb
cb Acb ) + ∑ ∑ (q
cell particle
p Ap ) = Fent ρ vuv hlv , (9)

where q, A, F and hlv are the boiling heat flux, heat transfer area, flow area and latent heat of vaporization, subscripts cb, ‘p’ and ent
indicate cell boundary, equivalent particles and entrance of the porous layer, respectively. Heat conduction within equivalent particles
is taken into account, assuming those were single volumes. No heat transfer is assumed between water-migrated cells.
The spatial discretization of the test geometry is illustrated in Fig. 11 together with a coordinate system for thermocouple positions.
The vertical cross-section of concrete trap and debris was discretized by analytical cells with a width of 1.0cm. The initial and
boundary conditions, including mass and initial temperature of debris, induction heat input, ambient temperature and pressure, were
set according to the test results.

Equivalent particle
Volume into which water can migrate
Water migrated volume
Fig. 10. Schematic diagram for preliminary water migration model Fig. 11. Spatial discretization for present analysis
The comparison of the basemat ablation depth for the D-8a test is shown in Fig. 12. The ablation depth was defined as the position
where the temperature of concrete was increased up to 1500 K as an assumed ablation temperature. The predicted values plotted are
averaged ones over the basemat. The maximum depth in the prediction was approximately 40% higher than the average. It was
confirmed that the COCO code was capable of qualitatively reproducing the ablation behavior during the initial phase of the test.
However, after approximately 5000 s, the COCO code underestimated the observed ablation depth. One of the possible causes for this
discrepancy was that, in the present analysis, accumulation of the ablated concrete on the debris was not taken into account, resulting
in overestimation of heat loss from the debris upper surface especially in the late phase.
The comparison of the basemat ablation depth for the D-8a test is shown in Fig. 12. The ablation depth was defined as the position
where the temperature of concrete was increased up to 1500 K as an assumed ablation temperature. The predicted values plotted are
averaged ones over the basemat. The maximum depth in the prediction was approximately 40% higher than the average. It was
confirmed that the COCO code was capable of qualitatively reproducing the ablation behavior during the initial phase of the test.
However, after approximately 5000 s, the COCO code underestimated the observed ablation depth. One of the possible causes for this
discrepancy was that, in the present analysis, accumulation of the ablated concrete on the debris was not taken into account, resulting
in overestimation of heat loss from the debris upper surface especially in the late phase.
A comparison of concrete temperatures in the side wall between experimental data and analysis is plotted in Fig. 13 for the D-2 test.
The model on water migration into the degraded concrete was activated in this analysis. The code prediction agreed well with the
observed tendency in the temperature history of the side wall. However, a relatively large discrepancy between the test and the
prediction was found for temperatures of the basemat, compared with the side wall. The predicted water migration depth in the side
wall is shown in Fig. 14. The prediction indicated that water migrated into the degraded concrete to a depth of approximately 50mm
from the top surface of the debris, corresponding to approximately a half of the accumulated debris depth. Considering the difference
of the side wall temperatures between the test and the prediction after approximately 1000 s, it was expected that the water migration
depth could be underestimated in the analysis.
 Fig. 12. Comparison of basemat ablation depth for D-8a test Fig. 13. Comparison of temperature history in side wall for D-2 test

Fig. 14. Predicted water penetration depth into porous layer for D-2 test.

4. Concluding remarks
A series of MCCI tests was performed in the COTELS project in order to investigate concrete degradation characteristics during
MCCI with and without water addition onto the debris. Molten stainless steel or a mixture composed of U02, Zr02, Zr and stainless
steel as a debris simulant was gravitationally slumped into a concrete trap. The long-term volumetric decay heat generation was
simulated by use of an induction heating technique.
The ablation rate for basaltic concrete was significantly smaller compared with one for mortar without coarse aggregates in case that a
stable crust was formed at the debris surface. A layer of the degraded concrete including coarse and fine aggregates were formed
between the debris and concrete in a test with basaltic concrete since aggregates were thermally more stable than the surrounding
cement. It was confirmed in a test with molten stainless steel as a debris simulant that, however, lighter aggregates floated without
complete melting. This floating of the unmolten aggregates could occur when a stable crust was not formed at the debris surface.
Those test results imply that concrete ablation processes depend on whether or not a stable crust is present.
The influence of an overlying water layer accumulated on the debris was examined by comparing two tests with and without water
addition. It was found in the test with the water addition that the side wall of the concrete trap initiated to be cooled, following an
initial sharp increase in temperature. It was considered that this tendency showed the occurrence of water migration into paths formed
in the thermally degraded concrete side wall. A preliminary water migration model was developed and incorporated into the COCO
code for transient heat conduction. The ablation depth for a concrete trap made of basaltic concrete under a dry condition was
qualitatively predicted by the COCO code. Additionally, the COCO code was capable of reproducing the tendency in temperature
transient of the side wall observed in the test with the water addition.
Acknowledgments
The present work was performed under a contract between the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan and Nuclear Power
Engineering Corporation. The study was performed by Nuclear Power Corporation (NUPEC) which was restructured to Japan
Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (JNES).
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Nomenclature
A heat transfer area
De equivalent particle diameter of packed bed
Dh hydraulic equivalent diameter of porous layer
Dpore diameter of pores
fht - constant
F - flow area
g - gravitational acceleration
hi - latent heat of vaporization
j* - dimensionless velocity
q boiling heat flux
specific surface area
u superficial velocity
Greek letters
e porosity
p density
Subscripts
cb cell boundary
cd concrete decomposed gas
ent entrance of porous layer
g gas
l - water
p - equivalent particles
v - vapor

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