Critical steady-state blowdown of flashing water through tubes

Abstract

Formulation of the problem and results of the critical steady-state blowdown of flashing water from relatively short tubes ( L/D = 3 to 20, L ⩽ 0.76 m, 0.00365 m ⩽ D ⩽ 0.038 m ), at moderate entrance pressures ( p ⩽ 16 MPa ), are presented in this paper. A numerical experiment was performed using a quasi one-dimensional model of a bubbly two-phase flow mixture. The water was considered to flash near the channel entrance section (i.e., at the location of maximum water superheat for a fixed number of suspended particles). The numerical and experimental results are shown to agree satisfactorily.