The QUEOS facility serves to study premixing phenomena with solid spheres, i.e. without the danger of a steam explosion and the complication of melt fragmentation. Emphasis was put on high sphere temperatures (up to 2600 K) and the use of large numbers of comparatively small spheres so that intensive multiphase interactions with strong coupling of the phases (collective motion of the spheres) are observed. In order to simulate melt jets as closely as possible, the spheres are released as a cylindrical jet into a three-dimensional test vessel.
The QUEOS facility consists of the test vessel, the furnace and the valve system separating the two. The spheres are heated in an electric radiation furnace in an argon atmosphere. The spheres are discharged into the water with a drop height of 130 cm. The diameter of the sphere stream is 100 mm or 180 mm after the discharge from the middle valve and the spheres fall freely without touching any walls.
Facility is in operation.