A new method to derive one set of scaling criteria for reactor natural circulation at single and two-phase conditions

Abstract

Natural circulation is one of the most important thermal-hydraulic phenomena that makes the fluid flow along a closed loop without any external driving force. With this merit, it is adopted by the passive heat removal system to bring the residual heat out of the core at accidents, and by the primary system of some new conceptual reactors instead of pumps to drive the coolant in the loop at operation. To investigate the reactor natural circulation and verify system thermal-hydraulic codes, it is a way to construct an integrated effect test facility and perform experiments on it with the scaling criteria. With one-dimensional assumption, the natural circulation system was simplified as the heat source, heat sink and pipes, and described by two groups of equations independently for the single-phase and two-phase flow conditions. Based on these equations, a set of non-dimensional equations were derived and the criteria were obtained both applicable for single-phase and two-phase natural circulation. According to these criteria, the practical application was analyzed and discussed. In the paper, the property similarity was strongly suggested in most cases. Though equal height simulation was widely used in the past, the reduced height simulation is a good way to reproduce three-dimensional (3D) phenomena that are of concern in the investigation. The CHF simulation is not suggested. The mass of metal and its distribution is of concern instead of heat transfer at transient simulation.