Aerosol Generation by Liquid Breakup Resulting from Sparging of Molten Pools of Corium by Gases Released During Core/Concrete Interactions

Aerosol release is expected from a pool of molten corium that is agitated by gases that would emerge from concrete during the core/concrete interactions phase of a core meltdown accident in a light water reactor. A corium flow-regime-dependent model is developed for aerosol generation by mechanical breakup of the melt by the flowing vapors. Previous work reported in the literature is used to identify the dominant corium gas/liquid flow regimes and to formulate the flow/regime transition criteria. Models are presented for the calculation of an aerosol entrainment rate under conditions of bubbly- and churn-turbulent, two-phase pool conditions.