Thermal-hydraulic behavior of a marine reactor during oscillations

Abstract

The effect of ship motion, such as heaving and rolling, on the thermal-hydraulic behavior of marine reactors was investigated. The COBRA-IV-I CODE was modified to analyse the thermal-hydraulic performance on the critical heat flux under oscillating acceleration conditions. The critical heat flux in the code was verified experimentally using freon as a comparison. The Critical Heat Flux Ratio (CHFR) at the hottest channel of the PWR subchannel was analysed using the same code. A system code RETRAN-02/MOD2-GRAV was developed by improving RETRAN-02/MOD2 to simulate the thermal hydraulic transient under ship motion. It was verified by comparison using the experimental results of both two-phase natural circulation flow under heaving motion and single-phase natural circulation flow at an inclined attitude. The code was used to analyse reactor plant behavior in the nuclear ship Mutsu. Natural circulation flow during rolling motion was investigated experimentally. The characteristics of loop flow and core flow rates were clarified. The core flow rate correlated well with the Reynolds number of rolling motion.