Prediction of Countercurrent Flow Limitation and Its Uncertainty in Horizontal and Slightly Inclined Pipes

Abstract

We proposed prediction methods for countercurrent flow limitation (CCFL) in horizontal and slightly inclined pipes with one-dimensional (1-D) computations and uncertainty of computed CCFL. In this study, we applied the proposed methods to a full-scale pressurizer surge line [inclination angle θ = 0.6 deg, diameter D = 300 mm, and ratio of the length to the diameter (L/D) = 63] in a specific pressurized water reactor, performed 1-D computations and three-dimensional (3-D) numerical simulations, and found that uncertainties caused by effects of the diameter and fluid properties on CCFL were small. We also applied the proposed methods to experiments for hot-leg and surge line models (θ = 0 and 0.6 deg, D = 0.03 to 0.65 m, and L/D = 4.5 to 63) to generalize them, performed 1-D computations, and found that uncertainties caused by effects of θ and L on CCFL were large due to the setting error for θ and differences among experiments. This shows that a small-scale air-water experiment with the same θ and L/D as those in an actual plant is effective to reduce the uncertainty of CCFL prediction.