Core liquid level depression due to manometric effect during PWR small break LOCA. Effect of break area.

Abstract

The 10, 5 and 2.5% cold leg break loss-of-coolant accident experiments were conducted by using the Large Scale Test Facility (LSTF) of the Rig of Safety Assessment (ROSA)-IV program. In the early stage of the 5% break experiment, the core collapsed liquid level was depressed nearly to the core bottom and the dryout of the core was observed. However, the core liquid level depression without the core dry out was observed in the 10 and 2.5% break experiments. In the three break experiments, the core liquid levels were recovered just after the loop seal clearing. The manometric effect due to the liquid seal formation in the loop seal and the liquid holdup in the steam generator (SG) U-tubes upflow-side caused a depression of the core collapsed liquid level. The liquid holdup in the U-tubes upflow-side was observed after the termination of the two-phase circulation due to the phase separation at the U-tubes top. The counter current flow limiting (CCFL) and the condensation of steam was considered to be the mai...