Akira Yasuo

Thermo-Hydraulic Instability of Boiling Natural Circulation Loop Induced by Flashing (Analytical consideration)

An analytical study is presented on the thermo-hydraulic stability of a boiling natural circulation loop with a chimney at low pressure start-up. The effect of flashing induced by the pressure drop in the channel and the chimney due to gravity head on the instability is considered. A method to analyze linear stability is developed, in which a drift-flux model is used. The analytical result of a stability map agrees very well with the experimental one obtained in a previous report. Instability does not occur when the heater power is too low to generate voids in the chimney and only natural circulation of single phase can be induced. Instability tends to occur when boiling occurs only near the chimney exit due to flashing. This instability phenomenon has some similarities with density wave oscillation, such as the phase difference of temperature between the boiling region and non-boiling region, and the oscillation period which is near to the time required for fluid to pass through the chimney. However, there are also some differences from density wave oscillation, such as the boiling region is very short, and pressure fluctuation can affect void fraction fluctuation.

Flow structure and bubble characteristics of steam–water two-phase flow in a large-diameter pipe

The flow structure and bubble characteristics of steam–water two-phase upward flow were observed in a vertical pipe 155 mm in inner diameter. Experiments were conducted under volumetric flux conditions of JG<0.25 m s−1 and JL<0.6 m s−1, and three different inlet boundary conditions to investigate the developing state of the flow. The radial distributions of flow structure, such as void fraction, bubble chord length and gas velocity, were obtained by horizontally traversing optical dual void probes through the pipe. The spectra of bubble chord length and gas velocity were also obtained to study the characteristics of bubbles in detail. Overall, an empirical database of the multi-dimensional flow structure of two-phase flow in a large-diameter pipe was obtained. The void profiles converged to a so-called core-shaped distribution and the flow reached a quasi-developed state within a relatively short height-to-diameter aspect ratio of about H/D=4 compared to a small-diameter pipe flow. The PDF histogram profiles of bubble chord length and gas velocity could be approximated fairly well by a model function using a gamma distribution and log–normal distribution, respectively. Finally, the correlation of Sauter mean bubble diameter was derived as a function of local void fraction, pressure, surface tension and density. With this correlation, cross sectional averaged bubble diameter was predicted with high accuracy compared to the existing constitutive equation mainly being used in best-estimate codes.

Bubble characteristics of steam–water two-phase flow in a large-diameter pipe

Bubble characteristics of steam–water two-phase upward flow were observed in a vertical pipe 155 mm in inner diameter. Experiments were conducted under volumetric flux conditions of JG<0.25 m/s and JL<0.6 m/s, and three different inlet boundary conditions to investigate the developing state of the flow. The radial distributions of flow structure were obtained by horizontally traversing optical dual void probes through the pipe. The spectra of bubble chord length and gas velocity were also obtained to study the characteristics of bubbles in detail. The flow reached a quasi-developed state within relatively short height to diameter aspect ratio of about H/D=4 compared to a small-diameter pipe flow. The PDF profiles of bubble chord length and gas velocity were able to approximate fairly well by model function using Gamma distribution and log-normal distribution, respectively.

A Study on Fluid Excitation Forces Acting on a Rotated Square Tube Bundle of T∕D=3.1 in Cross-Flow

The local fluid excitation force acting on a rotated square tube bundle having transverse pitch-to-diameter ratio of T/D=3.1, in a single-phase cross-flow was measured, and the normalized power spectral density (NPSD) and correlation length in the axial direction of a tube were examined. The fluid excitation force acting on the interior tube was from three to ten times larger than that acting on the upstream tube. The fluid force was almost fully developed after the third row. NPSD of the fluid excitation force could be almost plotted on a single universal curve. Regarding the lift direction, there was a peak in NPSD at fD/u∼0.3 caused by vortex shedding. Regarding the drag direction, there could be another peak in NPSD around twice the vortex shedding frequency. In the region of fD/u>0.5, where the effect of the vortex shedding was assumed to be small in the lift direction, the correlation length of the lift direction was ∼1.1D. NPSD was a little larger than previous results for tube bundles of relatively small pitch to diameter ratios summarized by Axisa, Antunes, and Villard (1990, J. Fluid Struct., 4, pp. 321-341).

Turbulence-Induced Fluid Dynamic Forces Acting on Cross-Shaped Tube Bundle in Cross Flow

A cross-shaped tube bundle with dense arrangement may be designed for a lower plenum structure in a next generation LWR, though the characteristics of flow-induced vibration of this type of tube bundle remain virtually unknown. In this study, turbulence-induced fluid dynamic forces acting on a cross-shaped tube bundle with a dense arrangement subject to cross flow were measured by water tunnel tests with two types of scale models. One is a small-scale model to measure local fluid dynamic forces and their correlation length in the lift and drag direction. The other is a large-scale model to investigate the effect of the Reynolds number on fluid dynamic forces in the lift, drag and torsional directions. Free oscillation tests with another small-scale model were also conducted to measure vibration amplitude by random excitation force. In conclusion, the following results were obtained. Vortex-induced vibration cannot arise in the cross-shaped tube bundle, since a typical peak corresponding to periodic vortex shedding was not observed in power spectral density for fluid excitation force. Power spectral densities of fluid dynamic forces in the drag, lift and torsional directions have mutually similar properties and they are hardly dependent on the Reynolds number. The experimental results were compiled into dimensionless correlation equations composed of the power spectral density for the local fluid excitation force and its correlation length. They are useful for evaluating the random vibration amplitude. The estimated amplitudes of turbulence-induced vibration by the correlation equation coincide with those of the experimental results obtained by the free-oscillation tests.Copyright

A study of thermal-hydraulic requirements for increasing the power rates for natural-circulation boiling water reactors

In this paper, the feasibility of higher power rates for natural-circulation boiling water reactors (BWRs) is studied with the objective of examining the flexibility of the plant power rate in constructing such plants to cope with the increasing demand for electricity. By applying existing one-dimensional design codes, the riser heights necessary to meet two major thermal-hydraulic requirements, i.e., critical power and core stability, are systematically calculated. Several restrictions on the maximum diameter and height of the pressure vessel are also considered because these restrictions could make construction impossible or drastically increase the construction costs. A very simple map of the dominant parameters for higher power rates is obtained. It is concluded that natural-circulation BWRs of {gt}1000 MW (electric) will be feasible within the restrictions considered here.

Flow-Induced Vibration of Cross-Shaped Tube Bundle: The Effect of Tube Bundle Arrangement

A cross-shaped tube bundle is proposed for the lower plenum structure in the next-generation LWR. The effect of tube bundle arrangement on the flow-induced vibration characteristics of the cross-shaped tube bundle in cross flow was considered experimentally. Regarding random vibration, the power spectral density of the fluid force of the staggered arrangement as well as the correlation length was measured and those of the normal arrangement were compared with those of the staggered arrangement. Regarding self-excited vibration, vibration response was compared. The trend of the power spectral densities, correlation length, and the critical velocity of the normal arrangement were similar to those of the staggered arrangement.Copyright

Self-Excited Vibration of Cross-Shaped Tube Bundle in Cross Flow

Cross-shaped tube bundle is proposed for a lower plenum structure in a next generation LWR. Vibration response of cross-shaped tube bundle in cross flow has been measured in water tunnel tests. First, small-scale test was conducted. Tests were conducted with 3×3 flexible tubes as well as single flexible tube in rigid tube bundle. The flexible tubes could vibrate in lift, drag, and torsional direction. The effect of arrangements of tube bundle and the natural frequency ratio of bending and torsional vibrations were considered. Second, a large-scale test was conducted for only one case to check the effect of Reynolds number, in which Reynolds number was 10 times larger than that of small-scale test. In all the cases, large amplitude vibration could appear when the flow velocity became larger than a critical value, and a self-excited vibration was found to occur. The nondimensional critical gap velocity of the large-scale test agreed well with that of the small-scale test, which suggested that the effect of Reynolds number was not so large. A design guideline to prevent self-excited vibration was proposed for cross-shaped tube bundle.Copyright

Tube-to-Support Dynamic Interaction Caused by Turbulent Flow-Induced Vibration.

Wear damage of heat transfer tubes should be avoided in order to improve the integrity of heat exchangers and steam generators. Tube wear is the result of tube/support impacting and rubbing motion caused by flow-induced tube vibrations. Evaluation of the relationship between the tube vibration and the tube-to-support interaction is a prerequisite for understanding tube wear. In this paper, tube-to-support interaction characteristics were investigated on a tube excited by flow turbulence. The results show that by using the magnitude of tube vibration under conditions free from tube/support contact and parameters representing tube setting condition in the tube support plate such as tube/support clearance and eccentricity, the characteristics of the interaction can be systematically evaluated.