Thermal-hydraulic Test Facility Research Articles

EXPERIMENTS ON THE PERFORMANCE SENSITIVITY OF THE PASSIVE RESIDUAL HEAT REMOVAL SYSTEM OF AN ADVANCED INTEGRAL TYPE REACTOR

A set of experiments has been conducted on the performance sensitivity of the passive residual heat removal system (PRHRS) for an advanced integral type reactor, SMART, by using a high temperature and high pressure thermal-hydraulic test facility, the VISTA facility. In this paper the effects of the opening delay of the PRHRS bypass valves and the closing delay of the secondary system isolation valves, and the initial water level and the initial pressure of the compensating tank (CT) are investigated. During the reference test a stable flow occurs in a natural circulation loop that is composed of a steam generator secondary side, a secondary system, and a PRHRS; this is ascertained by a repetition test. When the PRHRS bypass valves are operated 10 seconds later than the secondary system isolation valves, the primary system is not properly cooled. When the secondary system isolation valves are operated 10 or 30 seconds later than the PRHRS bypass valves, the primary system is effectively cooled but the inventory of the PRHRS CT is drained earlier. As the initial water level of the CT is lowered to 16% of the full water level, the water is quickly drained and then nitrogen gas is introduced into the PRHRS, resulting in the deterioration of the PRHRS performance. When the initial pressure of the PRHRS is at 0.1MPa, the natural circulation is not performed properly. When the initial pressures of the PRHRS are 2.5 or 3.5 MPa, they show better performance than did the reference test.

Design and analysis of a thermal hydraulic integral test facility for Bushehr nuclear power plant

In this paper, design and analysis of a thermal hydraulic integral test facility for Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is presented. The Bushehr Integral Test Facility (BITF) is a test facility designed to model the thermal-hydraulic behaviours of the Bushehr NPP (VVER-1000) pressurized water reactors currently in use in IRAN. These reactors have unique features that differ from other PWR designs. The BITF simulates the major components and systems of the reference NPP, making it possible to examine postulated small and medium break a loss of coolant accidents (LOCAs) and operational transients. The BITF is a volume-scaled model (1:1375). To ensure that gravitational forces remain equal to those in the reference reactor, the major components and systems in the BITF preserve 1:1 elevation equivalence to the reference reactor. The facility has four loops (each one consists of a hot leg, a steam generator, a loop seal, a main circulation pump and a cold leg), a pressurizer connected via two surge line to the hot leg of the loops 2, 4, the emergency-core-cooling system (ECCS) which is provided by an active pump simulating high and low pressure injection systems, and four hydro-accumulators. The report also contains a comparison between experimental data of PSB test facility and RELAP5 calculations of BITF facility under steady state condition of the reactor power 15% from the nominal.

An Integral Effect Test on the LBLOCA Reflood Phenomena for the APR1400 Using ATLAS under a Best-Estimate Condition

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) had started the operation of the Advanced Thermal-Hydraulic Test Loop for Accident Simulation (ATLAS), which is a thermal-hydraulic integral effect test facility for evolutionary pressurized water reactors of APR1400 and OPR1000. Recently, integral tests for the reflood phase of a large-break loss of coolant accident (LBLOCA) have been performed with the ATLAS after an extensive series of commissioning tests. The reflood tests include both Phase-1 and Phase-2 tests. Phase-1 tests are parametric effect tests for the downcomer boiling phenomena in a reactor pressure vessel during the LBLOCA late reflood period, and Phase-2 tests are integral effect tests for the thermal-hydraulic phenomena in the core and downcomer during the LBLOCA reflood period to provide important thermal-hydraulic parameters such as the peak cladding temperature for the evaluation of the safety analysis code and the corresponding licensing methodology. In the present paper, the LB-CL-14 test, which is an integral effect test on the LBLOCA reflood phenomena for APR1400 using the ATLAS under a best-estimate condition, is analyzed and the major findings are presented. As a typical radial power profile is given to the core heater and the system pressure varies to simulate the APR1400 as realistically as possible, the present test gives the most realistic results among the Phase-2 tests in terms of the peak cladding temperature (PCT) and rewetting time.

Commissioning of the ATLAS thermal-hydraulic integral test facility

KAERI recently constructed a new thermal-hydraulic integral test facility for advanced pressurized water reactors (PWRs) – ATLAS. The ATLAS facility has the following characteristics: (a) 1/2-height&length, 1/288-volume, and full pressure simulation of APR1400, (b) maintaining a geometrical similarity with APR1400 including 2(hot legs) × 4(cold legs) reactor coolant loops, direct vessel injection (DVI) of emergency core cooling water, integrated annular downcomer, etc., (c) incorporation of specific design characteristics of OPR1000 such as cold leg injection and low-pressure safety injection pumps, (d) maximum 10% of the scaled nominal core power. The ATLAS will mainly be used to simulate various accident and transient scenarios for evolutionary PWRs, OPR1000 and APR1400: the simulation capability of broad scenarios including the reflood phase of a large-break loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA), small-break LOCA scenarios including DVI line breaks, a steam generator tube rupture, a main steam line break, a feed line break, a mid-loop operation, etc. The ATLAS is now in operation after an extensive series of commissioning tests in 2006.

Experimental determination of the boron concentration distribution in the primary circuit of a PWR after a postulated cold leg small break loss-of-coolant-accident with cold leg safety injection

It is known that under-borated coolant can accumulate in the loops and that it can be transported towards the reactor core during a loss-of-coolant-accident. Therefore, the mixing of weakly borated water inside the reactor pressure vessel was investigated using the ROCOM test facility. Wire-mesh sensors based on electrical conductivity measurement are used to measure in detail the spreading of a tracer solution in the facility. The mixing in the downcomer was observed with a measuring grid of 64 azimuthal and 32 vertical positions. The resulting distribution of the boron concentration at the core inlet was measured with a sensor integrated into the lower core support plate providing one measurement position at the entry into each fuel assembly. The boundary conditions for this mixing experiment are taken from an experiment at the thermal hydraulic test facility PKL operated by AREVA Germany. The slugs, which have a lower density, accumulate in the upper part of the downcomer after entering the vessel. The ECC water injected into the reactor pressure vessel falls almost straight down through this weakly borated water layer and accelerates as it drops over the height of the downcomer. On the outer sides of the ECC streak, lower borated coolant admixes and flows together with the ECC water downwards. This has been found to be the only mechanism of transporting the lower borated water into the lower plenum. In the core inlet plane, a reduced boron concentration is detected only in the outer reaches of the core inlet. The minimum instantaneous boron concentration that was measured at a single fuel element inlet was found to be 66.3% of the initial 2500 ppm.

Experiments on the Heat Transfer and Natural Circulation Characteristics of the Passive Residual Heat Removal System for an Advanced Integral Type Reactor

Experiments on the heat transfer characteristics and natural circulation performance of the passive residual heat removal system (PRHRS) for the SMART-P have been performed by using the high temperature/high pressure thermal-hydraulic test facility (VISTA). The VISTA facility consists of the primary loop, the secondary loop, the PRHRS loop, and the auxiliary systems to simulate the SMART-P, a pilot plant of the SMART. The primary loop is composed of the steam generator (SG) primary side, a simulated core, a main coolant pump, and the loop piping, and the PRHRS loop consists of the SG secondary side, a PRHRS heat exchanger, and the loop piping. The natural circulation performance of the PRHRS, the heat transfer characteristics of the PRHRS heat exchangers and the emergency cooldown tank (ECT), and the thermal-hydraulic behavior of the primary loop are intensively investigated. The experimental results show that the coolant flows steadily into the PRHRS loop and that the heat transfers through the PRHRS heat exchanger and the emergency cooldown tank are sufficient enough to enable a natural circulation of the coolant. The results also show that the core decay heat can be sufficiently removed from the primary loop with an operation of the PRHRS.

Simulation Capability of the ATLAS Facility for Major Design-Basis Accidents

A thermal-hydraulic integral-effect test facility [advanced thermal-hydraulic test loop for accident simulation (ATLAS)] is being constructed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. The ATLAS is a one-half-reduced-height and 1/288-volume-scaled test facility based on the design features of the APR1400, an evolutionary pressurized water reactor developed by the Korean industry. The simulation capability of the ATLAS for major design-basis accidents (DBAs), including a large-break loss-of-coolant accident and direct vessel injection line-break and main-steam-line-break accidents, is evaluated by the best-estimate system code MARS with the same control logics, transient scenarios, and nodalization scheme. The validity of the applied scaling law and the thermal-hydraulic similarity between the ATLAS and the APR1400 for the major DBAs are assessed. It is confirmed that the ATLAS can maintain an overall similarity with the reference plant APR1400 for the major DBAs considered in the study. However, depending on the accident scenarios, there are some inconsistencies in certain thermal-hydraulic parameters, such as cladding temperature, subcooling at the lower plenum of the core, break flow rate, core and downcomer water level, and secondary pressure. The causes of the inconsistencies are carefully investigated by considering the detailed design features of the ATLAS. It is found that the inconsistencies are mainly due to the reduced power effect and the increased stored energy in the structure. The similarity analysis was successful in obtaining a greater insight into the unique design features of the ATLAS and would be used for developing optimized experimental procedures and control logics.

The multipurpose thermalhydraulic test facility TOPFLOW: an overview on experimental capabilities, instrumentation and results

Abstract A new multipurpose thermalhydraulic test facility TOPFLOW (TwO Phase FLOW) was built and put into operation at Forschungszentrum Rossendorf in 2002 and 2003. Since then, it has been mainly used for the investigation of generic and applied steady state and transient two phase flow phenomena and the development and validation of models of Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) codes in the frame of the German CFD initiative. The advantage of TOPFLOW consists in the combination of a large scale of the test channels with a wide operational range both of the flow velocities as well as of the system pressures and temperatures plus finally the availability of a special instrumentation that is capable in high spatial and temporal resolving two phase flow phenomena, for example the wire-mesh sensors.

A neutron scatterometer for void-fraction measurement in heated rod-bundle channels under CANDU LOCA conditions

The difficult problem of directly measuring the void fraction of rapidly boiling water in rod-bundle channels, such as those simulating a large loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) in a nuclear reactor, is overcome by using a fast-neutron scattering device (scatterometer). The neutron scatterometer measures the number of neutrons scattered from a test section exposed to fast neutrons, and relates these measurements to the channel void fraction. The concept of the device and its design features are discussed. Such a scatterometer was constructed and installed on a test section (channel) of the RD-14M Thermalhydraulic Test Facility of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. Experiments (30-mm diameter break in the inlet header) were conducted to evaluate the scatterometer’s performance under transient conditions. Results of these tests show that the scatterometer can continuously measure the channel void fraction to within ±10% void (95% confidence interval) when corrections for non-linearity and time response are applied.

PSB-VVER simulation of Kozloduy NPP “loss of feed water transient”

This paper provides a comparison between the PSB test facility experimental results obtained during the simulation of loss of feed water transient (LOFW) and the calculation results received by INRNE computer model of the same test facility. Integral thermal-hydraulic PSB-VVER test facility located at Electrogorsk Research and Engineering Center on NPPs Safety (EREC) was put in operation in 1998. The structure of the test facility allows experimental studies under steady state, transient and accident conditions. RELAP5/MOD3.2 computer code has been used to simulate the loss of feed water transient in a PSB-VVER model. This model was developed at the Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy for simulation of loss of feed water transient. The objective of the experiment “loss of feed water”, which has been performed at PSB-VVER test facility is simulation of Kozloduy NPP LOFW transient. One of the main requirements to the experiment scenario has been to reproduce all main events and phenomena that occurred in Kozloduy NPP during the LOFW transient. Analyzing the PSB-VVER test with a RELAP5/MOD3.2 computer code as a standard problem allows investigating the phenomena included in the VVER code validation matrix as “integral system effects” and ”natural circulation“. For assessment of the RELAP5 capability to predict the “Integral system effect” phenomenon the following RELAP5 quantities are compared with external trends: the primary pressure and the hot and cold leg temperatures. In order to assess the RELAP5 capability to predict the “Natural circulation” phenomenon the hot and cold leg temperatures behavior have been investigated. This report was possible through the participation of leading specialists from Kozloduy NPP and with the support of Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), under the International Nuclear Safety Program (INSP) of the United States Department of Energy.

Nonintrusive measurement of transient flow boiling in rod-bundle channels using fast-neutron scattering

A portable fast-neutron scattering device (scatterometer) was developed for monitoring the amount of boiling (or void fraction) in transient steam-water flow through a metallic rod-bundle channel in the RD-14M Thermalhydraulic Test Facility located at the Whiteshell Laboratories of AECL Research. The scatterometer's performance was optimized by selecting a neutron-source energy range that results in a linear response and minimizes flow-regime dependence. The configuration of the overall system setup ensured that the contrast and resolution of the scatterometer were maximized. A prototype scatterometer was constructed and successfully tested under field conditions. The results showed that the scatterometer's performance was consistent with other independent process measurements.

Rod Bundle Burnout Data and Correlation Comparisons

Rod bundle burnout data from 30 steady-state and 3 transient tests were obtained from experiments performed in the Thermal Hydraulic Test Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The tests covered a parameter range relevant to intact core reactor accidents ranging from large break to small break loss-ofcoolant conditions. Instrumentation within the 64-rod test section indicated that burnout occurred over an axial range within the bundle. The distance from the point where the first dry rod was detected to the point where all rods were dry was up to 60 cm in some of the tests. The burnout data should prove useful in developing new correlations for use in reactor thermalhydraulic codes. Evaluation of several existing critical heat flux correlations using the data show that three correlations, the Barnett, Bowring, and Katto correlations, perform similarly and correlate the data better than the Biasi correlation.