Numerical Simulation of Agglomeration Characteristics of Liquid Lead-Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) Impurity Particles

Abstract Liquid lead and lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) are favored as primary side coolants for lead-cooled fast reactors due to their high heat carrying capacity, density, and boiling point. However, these liquids exhibit strong oxidation effects, leading to the formation of solid lead oxide particles. Additionally, they exert significant corrosion effects on structural materials, with LBE, in particular, demonstrating a lower melting point yet stronger corrosion compared to liquid lead. Consequently, a multitude of impurity particles, resulting from corrosion and oxidation, inevitably exists in liquid LBE. In the dynamic environment of liquid LBE, collisions among particles and between particles and walls can induce particle agglomeration due to fluid flow. The particle agglomeration behavior in liquid LBE significantly influences the particle size distribution (PSD), thereby affecting particle size, location, and motion state. This has implications for the interaction between impurity particles and fluid motion as well as wall surfaces. Through the utilization of numerical simulation, the agglomeration characteristics of impurity particles in liquid LBE can be observed in a more straightforward and intuitive manner. This approach enables a more precise and quantitative description of the particle size distribution (PSD) of impurity particles. The numerical results, offering practical insights, contribute valuable information for the formulation of schemes and measures in practical engineering applications. It serves as a reference for controlling and predicting impurities in lead-cooled fast reactors.