ISSN Online: 2379-1748
ISBN Flash Drive: 978-1-56700-483-0
ISBN Online: 978-1-56700-482-3
4th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference
EFFECTS OF SYSTEM PARAMETERS ON THE TWO-PHASE FLOW AND HEAT TRANSFER BEHAVIOR IN A ROD BUNDLE
Abstract
An experimental and numerical study was performed to investigate the effects of system pressure, inlet coolant
velocity, and inlet coolant subcooling on the two-phase flow and heat transfer behavior of a rod bundle under
reflood transient conditions. Experimental results were obtained from the NRC/PSU Rod Bundle Heat Transfer (RBHT) test facility from various test cases covering a range of system conditions. The RBHT test facility, which contains 49 vertical, 3.66 m (12 ft) long test rods (four unheated corner rods and 45 heated rods) with Inconel 600 cladding in a 7×7 geometry, having the rod diameters, rod pitches and spacer grids comparable to those in commercial PWRs, was specifically designed to obtain fundamental flow and heat transfer data during reflood transients. The thermal-hydraulic code TRAC/RELAP Advanced Computational Engine (TRACE) was used in this study by performing simulations with the same geometry and operating conditions as the RBHT facility. Results of the TRACE simulations were compared to the experimental data obtained in the RBHT tests. It was found that the trends on the effects of various system parameters on the thermal-hydraulic behavior of the rod bundle (i.e., the two-phase flow and heat transfer behavior of the rod bundle during reflood transients) predicted by the TRACE model agree well with the RBHT data.