Mechanisms Governing Fine Fragmentation of Hot Melt Immersed in Cold Water

Abstract

Hypotheses about the mechanisms governing fragmentation of superheated liquid metal droplets falling into cold water are analyzed. It is shown that a physical model based on the cavitation–acoustic mechanism governing fine fragmentation of melt under steam explosion conditions is likely the most suitable one for consistently describing the fragmentation of both low-melting and refractory metals. For checking this conjecture, special experiments for studying the processes triggered when cold (20°С) water comes into contact with a heated surface and for measuring the pressure impulses (arising both in coolant and in the hot body) accompanying the coolant flashing were carried out using liquid metal (tin and steel) droplets and superheated solid steel bodies. The working substance temperatures were varied in the range from 200 to 1600°С. The results obtained from the performed experiments are not in contradiction with the melt fine fragmentation process represented by the cavitation–acoustic model. It is shown that the acoustic waves generated during explosive growth of bubbles on a hot surface propagate in the solid body and are alternating in nature. Their intensity (including that at negative pressure values) differs only slightly in the modulus from the pressure impulses measured in the coolant and is sufficient for finely fragmenting the droplets. It is experimentally found—with the use of a conductance measuring technique—that the transition from the coolant film to bubble boiling mode is preceded by a short-term (lasting a few milliseconds) process involving intense interaction of waves at the steam–liquid boundary with the heated surface. The signal from the conductance measuring transducer was subjected to a wavelet analysis for different values of the heated surface temperature. The study results testify that high-frequency (several tens of kilohertz) pulsations of electric current are generated in the preburnout region with their characteristics varying (toward increasing the amplitude and intensity) with time as the heating and heated media come closer into contact with each other. A probabilistic process development scenario is suggested.