Condensation heat transfer with noncondensable gas for passive containment cooling of nuclear reactors

Abstract

Noncondensable gases that come from the containment and the interaction of cladding and steam during a severe accident deteriorate a passive containment cooling system's performance by degrading the heat transfer capabilities of the condensers in passive containment cooling systems. This work contributes to the area of modeling condensation heat transfer with noncondensable gases in integral facilities. Previously existing correlations and models are for the through-flow of the mixture of steam and the noncondensable gases and this may not be applicable to passive containment cooling systems where there is no clear passage for the steam to escape. This work presents a condensation heat transfer model for the downward cocurrent flow of a steam/air mixture through a condenser tube, taking into account the atypical characteristics of the passive containment cooling system. An empirical model is developed that depends on the inlet conditions, including the mixture Reynolds number and noncondensable gas concentration.