Critical Heat Flux for Low Flow in Vertical Annulus under Various Pressure Conditions

It is important to understand correctly a CHF under low flow condition for the purpose of enhancing the reactor safety and performance in the LWRs. The CHF experiments have been carried out for an internally heated vertical annulus in RCS loop facility. The experimental conditions cover ranges of pressure from 1.82 to 12.08 MPa, mass flux from 300 to 550kg/$m^2$. s and inlet subcooling of 210kJ/kg. The CHF data decrease with increasing pressure at high value of mass flux. For mass flux of about 300kg/$m^2$. s, the CHF rue little influenced by pressure. The CHF data are correlated well by using the dimensionless heat flux and dimensionless mass flux for a fixed inlet subcooling except the data group of 12.08 MPa. It seems that the Doerffer correlation and Katto correlation overestimate the CHF for low pressure and lower value of mass flux within this experimental ranges. The Bowling correlation gives a better prediction than the other two correlations.