SBIR-STTR Award

This proposal outlines a research program designed to point the way toward obtaining a useful mathematical model and/or physically based correlation of the rate of penetration of a molten pool into a less dense melting substrate when the pool and substrate materials are miscible. Our analysis of this density-driven phasechange process has shown that, if the streaming fingers of melt material observed to rise from the substrate melt layer are placed a Taylor wavelength apart, the melt fingers control the pool penetration process. Therefore, an experimental study of the Taylor instability wavelength pattern in the molten pool just above the melting substrate is an important part of the program; it involves photographic determination of the thickness of the melt layer that separates the frozen substrate from the hot pool and photographic determination of the spacing of the melt fingers. A laboratory study to obtain necessary data on pool penetration rates is also proposed. Interpretation of the penetration data in terms of the qualitative theory already developed at Fauske & Associates, Inc., FFAI) and described herein should reveal for the first time a clear "research path" for dealing with this complex, but rather important, problem.The potential commercial application as described by the awardee: The results of this research will be of special interest to scientists and engineers involved in the design and safety analysis of both light water and fast reactors from utilities, reactor manufacturers, and national laboratories. Fauske & Associates, Inc., is a consulting and R&D firm specializing in chemical and nuclear industry.