A numerical study on the levitation system for droplet preparation in a fuel-coolant interaction experiment

The MISTEE facility at KTH was designed to investigate the process and phenomena of a molten droplet falling into a water pool that may be encountered in fuel-coolant interactions (FCI) during a severe accident of light water reactors. An aerodynamic levitation mechanism is proposed to hold the molten droplet during its preparation (melting and heating up to a prescribed temperature) in an induction furnace. The crucible is flushed with argon through an injection nozzle at the bottom to prevent the droplet from falling out of the crucible. A numerical simulation of the aerodynamic levitation system is performed in the present study with the objective of determining and optimizing the design. The problem was simplified as an isothermal two-phase flow in an axisymmetric geometry. The simulation is realized through ANSYS Fluent v17 platform, which employs the VOF method to track interfaces between two phases and the SST k-omega model to describe turbulence flow of argon gas. The numerical model is validated against tests performed in the MISTEE facility after mesh sensitivity study. It is then applied to investigate the impacts of various parameters on the facility levitation capability and the droplet stability. According to the simulation results, stable molten droplets can be obtained in the designed experimental setup. The simulation also provides the appropriate values of argon inlet velocity and sample mass at which a stable droplet can be obtained inside the crucible before its discharge. Either higher or lower inlet velocity will destabilize the formation of the droplet. Considering the temperature-dependent melt properties, both surface tension and viscosity affect the movement and deformation of the molten droplet. The wettability of melt on the crucible wall is critical to droplet formation, and it is found that a poor wettability can ensure the levitation of droplet.