Countercurrent Flow Limitation at the Junction between the Surge Line and the Pressurizer of a PWR

Abstract EN

An experimental study on countercurrent flow limitation (CCFL) in vertical pipes is carried out.

Effects of upper tank geometry and water levels in the upper and lower tanks on CCFL characteristics are investigated for air-water two-phase flows at room temperature and atmospheric pressure.

The following conclusions are obtained: (1) CCFL characteristics for different pipe diameters are well correlated using the Kutateladze number if the tank geometry and the water levels are the same; (2) CCFL occurs at the junction between the pipe and the upper tank both for the rectangular and cylindrical tanks, and CCFL with the cylindrical tank occurs not only at the junction but also inside the pipe at high gas flow rates and small pipe diameters; (3) the flow rate of water entering into the vertical pipe at the junction to the rectangular upper tank is lower than that to the cylindrical tank because of the presence of low frequency first-mode sloshing in the rectangular tank; (4) increases in the water level in the upper tank and in the air volume in the lower tank increase water penetration into the pipe, and therefore, they mitigate the flow limitation.