Quarterly report of the Argonne National Laboratory Chemical Engineering Division regarding activities related to properties and handling of radioactive materials, operation of nuclear reactors, and other relevant research.

Mechanisms that were developed for the Argonne National Laboratory - Northern Illinois University theorem proving system are discussed. By defining special input clauses and demodulators, it is possible to simulate mathematical processes such as canonicalization of polynomials with no special programming. The mechanisms presented resulted from a study of the X³ = X problem in ring theory. The use of the mechanisms allowed this problem to the solved for the first time by the automated theorem proving system.

The effects of curvature on steady states of chemical catalytic reactions are investigated by studying the cases of the catalytic particle being a spherical or cylindrical shell. Existence and stability of solutions are studied. It is shown that the solutions converge to the solutions for the catalytic slab when the curvature goes to 0 in each case.

This report describes a coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian code, ICECO-CEL, for analyzing the response of the primary system during hypothetical core disruptive accidents. The implicit Eulerian method is used to calculate the fluid motion so that large fluid distortion, two-dimensional sliding interface, flow around corners, flow through coolant passageways, and out-flow boundary conditions can be treated. The explicit Lagrangian formulation is employed to compute the response of the containment vessel and other elastic-plastic solids inside the reactor containment. Large displacements, as well as geometrical and material nonlinearities are considered in the analysis. Marker particles are utilized to define the free surface or the material interface and to visualize the fluid motion. The basic equations and numerical techniques used in the Eulerian hydrodynamics and Lagrangian structural dynamics are described. Treatment of the above-core hydrodynamics, sodium spillage, fluid cavitation, free-surface boundary conditions and heat transfer are also presented. Examples are given to illustrate the capabilities of the computer code. Comparisons of the code predictions with available experimental data are also made.

This report covers the research, development, and management activities of the programs involving high-performance lithium-aluminum/iron sulfide batteries at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and at contractors' laboratories during the period October 1979 through September 1980. These batteries, which are being developed for electric-vehicle propulsion and stationary energy storage applications, consist of vertically oriented prismatic cells with one or more inner positive electrodes of FeS or FeS2 facing negative electrodes of lithium-aluminum, and molten LiCl-KCl electrolyte.