Development of an Experimental Correlation for a Pressure Loss at a Side Orifice

Abstract

An experimental study has been carried out to measure the pressure loss at the side orifice of a liquid metal reactor fuel assembly. The characteristics of the pressure loss at the side orifice are investigated using the experimental data measured from 17 different types of side orifices that have different geometric shapes, dimensions, and arrangements of nozzles, and a correlation that covers the whole flow range by one equation is developed. The error range of the correlation is within ±10%, and most of the errors occurred in a region where the Reynolds number is small. The range of Reynolds numbers based on the hydraulic diameter of the orifice is 2000–350,000. It is found that the geometric factor is the most important parameter for the pressure loss when the Reynolds number is >30,000. As the Reynolds number becomes smaller, its effect becomes larger, and when the Reynolds number is small, it is the most important parameter for the pressure loss at the side orifices. The measured data shows a trend that the pressure loss coefficient increases as the number of orifices increases, and the effect of the longitudinal arrangement is small.