Development of Prediction Technology of Two-Phase Flow Dynamics Under Earthquake Acceleration: (13) Rising Bubble Motion Under Horizontal Vibration

Abstract

An earthquake is one of the most serious phenomena for the safety of a nuclear reactor in Japan. Therefore, structural safety of nuclear reactors has been studied and nuclear reactors ware contracted with structural safety for a big earthquake. However, it is not enough for safety operation of nuclear reactors because thermal-fluid safety is not confirmed under the earthquake. For instance, behavior of gas-liquid two-phase flow is unknown under the earthquake conditions. Especially, fluctuation of void fraction is an important factor for the safety operation of the nuclear reactor. In the previous work, fluctuation of void faction in bubbly flow was studied experimentally and theoretically, to investigate the stability of the bubbly flow. In such studies, flow rate or void fraction fluctuations were given to the steady bubbly flow. In the case of the earthquake, the fluctuation is not only the flow rate, but also a body force on the two-phase flow and a shear force through a pipe wall. Interactions of gas and liquid through their interface also act on the behavior of the two-phase flow. The fluctuation of the void fraction is not clear for such complicated situation under the earthquake. Therefore, in this research project, the behavior of gas-liquid two-phase flow is investigated experimentally and numerically in the series of study. In this study, to investigate the effects of vibration on bubbly flow in the components and construct an experimental database for validation, we performed visualization experiments of vertical bubbly flow in a rectangular water tank on which a sine wave vibration was applied. In this paper, results of visualized experiment evaluated by the visualization techniques, including positions of bubbles, shapes of bubbles and liquid velocity distributions around bubbles, were shown. And liquid velocity distribution around bubbles by the PIV measurement was also shown. In the results, bubble behaviors were affected by oscillation. And the cycle of the bubble tilt angle was almost same as the cycle of oscillation table velocity.