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The void fraction of melter feed during nuclear waste glass vitrification

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Abstract

To efficiently vitrify Hanford waste, the melting process (i.e., melter feed turning into waste glass) must be modeled and optimized. The rate of heat transfer to the melter feed in a waste glass melter, and thus the rate of melting, is strongly affected by the melter feed porosity, especially in the final stages where the glass-forming melt produces foam that insulates the feed from the molten glass. The volume expansion test allows the determination of the melter feed porosity as a function of temperature. This test measures the profile area of the feed pellet as it turns into glass. This contribution presents the calculation of the void fraction (porosity) of the melter feed as a function of temperature, heating rate, and material parameters. The process of finding the void fraction is described as well as results from the application of this process.

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Acknowledgments

David Pierce, Brad Vanderveer: data collection

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd, Richland, WA, 99354, USA

    Zachary J. Hilliard & Pavel R. Hrma

  2. Division of Advanced Nuclear Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Korea

    Pavel R. Hrma

Authors
  1. Zachary J. Hilliard
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  2. Pavel R. Hrma
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Hilliard, Z.J., Hrma, P.R. The void fraction of melter feed during nuclear waste glass vitrification. MRS Online Proceedings Library 1744, 107–112 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2015.311

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2015.311

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