D.N. Jia

An investigation of flow characteristics and critical heat flux in vertical upward round tube

Abstract Prediction of critical heat flux (CHF) in annular flow is important for the safety of once-through steam generator and the reactor core under accident conditions. The dryout in annular flow occurs at the point where the film is depleted due to entrainment, deposition, and evaporation. The film thickness, film mass flow rate along axial distribution, and CHF are calculated in vertical upward round tube on the basis of a separated flow model of annular flow. The theoretical CHF values are higher than those derived from experimental data, with error being within 30%.

The development and verification of thermal-hydraulic code on passive residual heat removal system of Chinese advanced PWR

Abstract The technology of passive safety is the current trend among safety systems in nuclear power plant. Passive residual heat removal system (PRHRS), a major part of passive safety systems of Chinese advanced PWR, is a novel design with three-fold natural circulation. On the basis of reasonable physics and mathematics models, MI-TAP-PRHRS code was developed to analyze steady and transient characteristics of the PRHRS. The calculation and analysis show that the code simulates steady characteristics of the PRHRS very well, and it is able to simulate transient characteristics of all startup modes of the PRHRS. However, the quantitative description is poor during the initial stages of the transition process when water hammer occurs.

Experimental research on dryout point of flow boiling in narrow annular channels

Abstract An experimental research on the dryout point of flow boiling in narrow annular channels under low mass flux with 1.55 mm and 1.05 mm annular gap, respectively, is conducted. Distilled water is used as working fluid and the range of pressure is limited within 2.0∼4.0 MPa and that of mass flux is 26.0∼69.0 kg·m−2·s−1. The relation of critical heat flux (CHF) and critical qualities with mass flux and pressure are revealed. It is found that the critical qualities decrease with the increasing mass flux and increase with the increasing inlet qualities in externally heated annuli. Under the same conditions, critical qualities in the outer tube are always larger than those in the inner tube. The appearance of dryout point in bilaterally heated narrow annuli can be judged according to the ratio of qo/qi.

Analysis on natural circulation capacity of the CARR

Abstract The investigation on natural circulation (NC) characteristics of the China Advanced Research Reactor(CARR) is very valuable for practical engineering application and also a key subject for the CARR. In this study, a computer code was developed to calculate the NC capacity of the CARR under different pool water temperatures. Effects of the pool water temperature on NC characteristics were analyzed. The results show that with increasing pool water temperature, the NC flow rate increases while the NC capacity decreases. Based on the computation results and theoretical deduction, a correlation was proposed on predicting the relationship between the NC mass flow and the core power under different conditions. The correlation prediction agrees well with the computational result within ± 10% for the maximal deviation. This work is instructive for the actual operation of the CARR.

Analysis of flow instabilities in forced-convection steam generator

Abstract Because of the practical importance of two-phase instabilities, substantial efforts have been made to date to understand the physical phenomena governing such instabilities and to develop computational tools to model the dynamics. The purpose of this study is to present a numerical model for the analysis of flow-induced instabilities in forced-convection steam generator. The model is based on the assumption of homogeneous two-phase flow and ther-modynamic equilibrium of the phases. The thermal capacity of the heater wall has been included in the analysis. The model is used to analyze the flow instabilities in the steam generator and to study the effects of system pressure, mass flux, inlet temperature and inlet/outlet restriction, gap size, the ratio of do/di, and the ratio of qi/qo on the system behavior.

Experimental Study on Dryout Point in Vertical Narrow Annulus Under Low Flow Conditions

Prediction of dryout point is experimentally investigated with deionized water upflowing through narrow annular channel with 1.0 mm and 1.5 mm gap respectively. The annular with narrow gap is bilaterally heated by AC current power supply. The experimental conditions covered a range of pressure from 0.8 to 3.5 MPa, mass flux from 26.6 to 68.8 kg/m2 s and wall heat flux from 5.0 to 50.0 kW/m2 . The location of dryout is obtained by observing a sudden rise in surface temperature, Kutateladze correlations is cited, however proved to be not a proper one for annuli gap and modified to predict the location of dryout. Considering in detail the effects of the geometry of annuli, pressure, mass flux and heat flux on dryout, an empirical correction is finally developed to predict dryout point in narrow annular gap under low flow condition which has a good agreement with experimental data.Copyright