Development of a chemical kinetic measurement apparatus and the determination of the reaction rate constants for lithium-lead/steam interaction. Final report 9-21-90--3-31-95

摘要

The objective of this research to experimentally determine the hydrogen generation rate during the beginning and subsequent stages of liquid metal (Li(sub 17)Pb(sub 83)) and water reaction. The experimental set-up has been built. It includes a metal sample preparation apparatus, a reaction system, a measurement system and a PC based data acquisition and control system. The most important feature of the reaction system is a pneumatic actuated quick opening and closing high temperature, all stainless steel valve used the system for reaction time control. The PC system provides remote process sequencing, acquisition and control of all the systems except the metal preparation apparatus. Due to the reactivity of the lithium, all the metal sampling, preparation and loading procedures are executed in a glove box under argon protection. The metal temperature was varied between 350(degrees)C-650(degrees)C and water temperature fixed at 60(degrees)C during the experiments. A set of experimental procedures and two analyses methods: (1) thermodynamics method and (2) heat transfer method are discussed. All the measurements and data collections are executed under the PC system control. A data analysis program is used to calculate both the partial pressure of hydrogen and the hydrogen generation rate. The experiment results indicate that the amount of hydrogen generated is relate to the initial liquid metal temperature when the reaction surface is fixed. The mass of hydrogen generated as a function of initial liquid metal temperature and time of reaction is presented, The hydrogen generation over a time period of 240 seconds and the calculated errors are summarized in Table 1.