Elucidating the Impact of Flow on Material-Sensitive Critical Heat Flux and Boiling Heat Transfer Coefficients: An Experimental Study with Various Materials

Abstract

Steady-state internal flow boiling critical heat flux (CHF) experiments were carried out at 10℃ inlet subcooling and atmospheric pressure (84 kPa at an altitude of about 5300 feet) with mass flux ranging from 200 to 2,000 kg/m2-s on seven tube materials, including the accident-tolerant fuel cladding candidate FeCrAl (C26M) alloy. At a relatively low flow rate, the sensitivity of CHF to different materials was appreciable (the average difference among the tested materials was 19% at 200 kg/m2-s). As the absolute CHF differences stayed constant for higher flow rates, the increased flow rate led to reduced relative CHF differences among the tested materials (average relative difference of 15% at 1,000 kg/m2-s). FeCrAl alloy claddings that were oxidized under simulated Light Water Reactor (LWR) conditions yielded CHF comparable to as-received FeCrAl alloy cladding, with less than 1.8% difference. Experimental CHF results imply marginal material sensitivity impacts on the departure from nucleate boiling ratio in steady-state nuclear reactor cores. Yet, for accident progression analysis, material sensitivity may hold importance, as boiling behavior variation at low mass flux is appreciable. Macroscopic material parameters (surface wettability, surface roughness, and thermal properties) do not provide a suitable explanation for observed material-sensitive CHFs. Yet, surface roughness and thermal effusivity revealed power and linear relations, respectively, to the nucleate boiling heat transfer coefficients at low mass flux. At high mass flux, material sensitivity on nucleate boiling heat transfer significantly decreased due to the increased shear stress on boiling surface overwhelming material-related boiling implications.