Contribution to the study of particle resuspension kinetics during thermal degradation of polymers

Experimental results are reported on the resuspension of particles deposited on polymer samples representative of glove boxes used in the nuclear industry, under thermal degradation. A parametric study was carried out on the effects of heat flux, air flow rate, fuel type and particle size distribution. Small-scale experiments were conducted on 10 cm × 10 cm PolyMethyl MethAcrylate (PMMA) and PolyCarbonate (PC) samples covered with aluminium oxide particles with physical geometric diameters of 0.7 and 3.6 μm. It was observed for both polymer (fuel) samples that heat flux has no effect on the airborne release fraction (ARF), whereas particle size is a significant parameter. In the case of the PMMA sample, ARF values for 0.7 and 3.6 μm diameter particles range from 12.2% (± 6.2%) to 2.1% (± 0.6%), respectively, whereas the respective values for the PC sample range from 3.2% (± 0.8%) to 6.9% (± 3.9%). As the particle diameter increases, a significant decrease in particle release is observed for the PMMA sample, whereas an increase is observed for the PC sample. Furthermore, a peak airborne release rate is observed during the first instants of PMMA exposure to thermal stress. An empirical relationship has been proposed between the duration of this peak release and the external heat flux.