Experimental Investigation of Rod Pitch Effect on Void Fraction in 5 × 5 Rod‐bundle under Elevated Pressure Conditions

Abstract

In the present study, void fraction distributions in 5 × 5 rod-bundle test sections were investigated. Two different rod-bundle test sections with different rod pitch lengths were constructed. Experiments were carried out using unheated rod-bundle test sections equipped with 10 mm rod diameter with rod-pitch lengths of 13 and 12 mm, respectively. The HUSTLE (Hitachi Utility Steam Test Leading Facility) facility supplied steam and water with an inlet mass flux (G) ranging from 75 to 500 kg/m2/s at 5.0 to 7.5 MPa system pressure. These inlet and boundary conditions simulate the prototypic BWR at natural circulation conditions. For the measurement of void fraction, the X-ray CT system was newly developed for the three-dimensional time-averaged void fraction measurement, and 3D void fraction distributions were successfully obtained for various pressure conditions. The volume-averaged void fraction was also measured using differential pressure transmitters. Based on the newly developed void fraction database, the assessment was carried out using state-of-the-art drift-flux correlations applicable for rod-bundle. Existing correlations tend to show good void fraction prediction at high mass flux conditions for both geometries, poorer performance was shown for the narrow rod test sections with low mass flux conditions. Furthermore, the effect of the rod-pitch lengths on void fraction distribution in rod-bundle flow field was assessed. It was observed that narrower rod bundle configuration tends to have higher void fraction at given mass flux. Narrowed pitch-length enhances wall-friction against two-phase flow, which likely suppress the central phase fraction peak tendency. This promotes lower distribution parameter values, results in increased area-averaged void fraction for narrower pitch test section. However, the present study revealed that no existing correlations could clearly capture the void fraction trend for the narrow rod test section.