Supercritical Vapor Explosions: Comparisons Between Thermodynamic and Mechanistic Models

The thermal interaction of certain molten materials such as Al₂O₃ with water results in vapor explosions with very high (supercritical) pressures and propagation velocities. A quasi-steady-state analysis and a transient analysis of a supercritical vapor explosion in one-dimensional multiphase flow were applied to analyze experimental data of an Al₂O₃-water fuel/coolant interaction obtained from the KROTOS 26, 28, 29, and 30 tests. The shock adiabatic thermodynamic model and the TEXAS mechanistic model were used to perform this analysis. The predicted results of the initial vapor void fraction and explosion conversion ratio from both models, together with the estimated experimental results, for the KROTOS 26 test were compared.