Hydrodynamic aspects of aerosols pool scrubbing

Pool scrubbing has shown potential efficiency to reduce the release of fission products, especially in aerosol forms, into the environment. Considering the large test conditions where pool scrubbing might be encountered, there is still a lack of systematic analysis of this phenomenon, especially its dependence on different hydrodynamic regimes. Experimental work was carried out, where hydrodynamic and decontamination factor measurements were performed. Caesium iodide aerosols were injected into the TYFON facility for different flow regimes (0.08 <= We <= 15 600) by varying both injection flowrate Qinj and nozzle size D0, in which their effects were examined. The Weber number (We) has shown to be capable of characterizing the decontamination factor, when comparing this work with data from literature. Moreover, the different flow regimes induced different sensitivities of aerosol removal mechanisms, where a minimum scrubbing is observed in the transition between bubbly and jet regime. The effect of pool submergence was also investigated in case of bubbly and jet regimes, in which the contribution of residence time and inertial impaction to pool scrubbing was shown. (c) 2023 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.