A critical heat flux model for IVR-ERVC application based on the experimental observation

Abstract

It is essential to conduct theoretical and experimental research on the heat transfer limit for External Reactor Vessel Cooling (ERVC), which aims to implement In-Vessel Retention (IVR) severe accident mitigation strategy successfully. In this paper, a theoretical model for IVR-ERVC condition is proposed to predict the critical heat flux (CHF) based on the experimental observation. According to the experimental observation on the one-dimensional full height IVR-ERVC experimental facility, it is found that there is a thin liquid film between the heating surface and the vapor slug. And this film is evaporated completely when CHF occurs. In addition, a large number of bubble condensation collapses were observed under subcooling condition. According to these experimental observations, a CHF model based on the mechanism of liquid film dryout is developed. The CHF trigger mechanism of this model is that the supply of fresh liquid into the liquid film is not sufficient to prevent depletion of the liquid film due to the boiling. The influence of heating surface geometry and the heat flux shape are considered in this model. The predicted values of the model are compared with the CHF experimental result from different test facilities with different conditions, and the comparison result shows that the relative errors are basically within 20 %. The analysis results of the model indicate the increasing of coolant subcooled degree is conductive to the improvement of CHF. When the coolant subcooled degree increases by 15 ℃, more than 30 % maximum increase in CHF is obtained. In addition, this model can reflect the “exit phenomena” to a certain extent.