The Effect of Internal Circulation on the Heat Transfer of a Nuclear Reactor Containment Spray Droplet

Heat removal rates from containment spray droplets following a loss-of-coolant accident in a nuclear reactor have been calculated by three different droplet models: the complete mixing model, the model with internal circulation, and the rigid sphere. Irrespective of the model, the thermalization time is found to increase with increasing droplet size. It is noticed that the thermalization times predicted by the complete mixing and nonmixing models either underestimate or overestimate the value provided by the internal circulation model. It is concluded that the effect of internal circulation cannot be ignored in estimating heat removal rates from spray droplets.