Critical Heat Flux and Flow Pattern for Water Flow in Annular Geometry

An experimental study on critical heat flux (CHF) and two-phase flow visualization has been performed for water flow in internally-heated, vertical, concentric annuli under near atmospheric pressure. Tests have been done under stable forced- circulation, upward and downward flow conditions with three test sections of relatively large gap widths (heated length = 0.6 m. inner diameter = 19 mm, outer diameter = 29, 35 and 51 mm). The outer wall of the test section was made up of the transparent Pyrex tube to allow the observation of flow patterns near the CHF occurrence. The CHF mechanism was changed in the order of flooding, chum-to-annular flow transition, and local dryout under a large bubble in churn flow as the flow rate was increased from zero to higher values. Observed parametric trends are consistent with the previous understanding except that the CHF for downward flow is considerably lower than that for upward flow.