Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Experimental and numerical investigation on the pressure pulsation in reactor coolant pumps under different inflow conditions

  • Song Huang (School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University) ;
  • Yu Song (School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University) ;
  • Junlian Yin (School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University) ;
  • Rui Xu (School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University) ;
  • Dezhong Wang (School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
  • Received : 2022.07.27
  • Accepted : 2022.12.19
  • Published : 2023.04.25
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

A reactor coolant pump (RCP) is essential for transporting coolant in the primary loop of pressurized water reactors. In the advanced passive reactor, the absence of a long pipeline between the steam generator and RCP serves as a transition section, resulting in a non-uniform flow field at the pump inlet. Therefore, the characteristics of the pump should be investigated under non-uniform flow to determine its influence on the pump. In this study, the pressure pulsation characteristics were examined in the time and frequency domains, and the sources of low-frequency and high-amplitude signals were analyzed using wavelet coherence analysis and numerical simulation. From computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results, non-uniform inflow has a great effect on the flow structures in the pump's inlet. The pressure pulsation in the pump at the rated flow increased by 78-128.7% under the non-uniform inflow condition in comparison with that observed under the uniform inflow condition. Furthermore, a low-frequency signal with a high amplitude was observed, whose energy increased significantly under non-uniform flow. The wavelet coherence and CFD analysis verified that the source of this signal was the low-frequency pulsating vortex under the steam generator.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was funded by the National Science and Technology Major Project of China (Grant Number 2018ZX06002010).

References

  1. T.L. Schulz, Westinghouse AP1000 advanced passive plant, Nucl. Eng. Des. 236 (2006) 1547-1557, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2006.03.049.
  2. H.H. Sun, P.D. Cheng, H.X. Miu, W.Z. Zhang, X.G. Zhu, M.H. Weng, Third Generation Nuclear Power Technology AP1000, China Electric Power Press, Beijing, 2010, pp. 322-412.
  3. C.E. Brennen, Hydrodynamics of Pumps, Cambridge University Press, 2011.
  4. H. Cheng, H. Li, J. Yin, X. Gu, Y. Hu, D. Wang, Investigation of the distortion suction flow on the performance of the canned nuclear coolant pump, in: 2014 ISFMFE-6th International Symposium on Fluid Machinery & Fluid Engineering, IET, Wuhan, 2014, https://doi.org/10.1049/cp.2014.1144. October 22-22.
  5. A. Hamed, K. Numbers, Inlet distortion considerations for high cycle fatigue in gas turbine engine, in: 33rd Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit, 1997, https://doi.org/10.2514/6.1997-3364.
  6. N.W.H. Bulten, B.P.M. Van Esch, Fully transient CFD analyses of waterjet pumps, Mar. Technol. SNAME N. 44 (2007) 185-193, https://doi.org/10.5957/mt1.2007.44.3.185.
  7. B.P.M. Van Esch, Performance and radial loading of a mixed-flow pump under non-uniform suction flow, J. Fluid Eng. 131 (2009), 051101, https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3089539.
  8. S. Guo, Y. Chen, Non-uniform distribution of water-jet inlet flow field, in: The 2010 IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation, Harbin, China, June 20-23, 2010, https://doi.org/10.1109/ICINFA.2010.5512071.
  9. W. Huang, W.Q. Zhang, W.Q. Tao, J.S. He, H. Huang, F.Y. Zhang, X.B. Liu, Flow characteristics experimental study within connection between steam generator channel head and pump suction, Nucl. Power Eng. 23 (2002) 38-42.
  10. W. Huang, W.Q. Zhang, W.Q. Tao, J.S. He, H. Huang, F.Y. Zhang, X.B. Liu, Experimental study on flow characteristics at lower head/main pump junction of steam generator, Nucl. Power Eng. (S1) (2002) 38-42.
  11. F.Y. Zhang, W.Q. Zhang, Q.K. Ji, X. Zeng, Y.Y. Xie, Design and simulation test of water chamber baffle of AC600 steam generator, Nucl. Power Eng. (1998) 27-33, 01.
  12. J.H. Nie, Experimental and Numerical Study of Turbulent Flow in Three-Dimensional Complex Region [ D ], Xi ' an Jiaotong University, 2000.
  13. S. Xia, M. Weng, J. Qiu, X. Pan, Steam generator and reactor coolant pump coupled flow field analysis, in: The 18th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering, 2010, pp. 205-214, https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE18-29201.
  14. Y.B. Li, Z.J. Fan, D.S. Guo, X.B. Li, Dynamic flow behavior and performance of a reactor coolant pump with distorted inflow, Eng. Appl. Comput. Fluid Mech. 14 (2020) 683-699, https://doi.org/10.1080/19942060.2020.1748720.
  15. Y. Long, D. Wang, J. Yin, Y. Hu, Experimental investigation on the unsteady pressure pulsation of reactor coolant pumps with non-uniform inflow, Ann. Nucl. Energy 110 (2017) 501-510, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2017.07.010.
  16. Y. Long, D. Wang, J. Yin, Y. Hu, H. Ran, Numerical investigation on the unsteady characteristics of reactor coolant pumps with non-uniform inflow, Nucl. Eng. Des. 320 (2017) 65-76, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2017.04.027.
  17. Qiao Yifei. Research on Influence of Different Inflow Conditions on Pressure Pulsation and Vibration Characteristics of RCP.
  18. Yuehui Wang, Research on Inlet Distortion Characteristics and Control Methods of Nuclear Main Pump [ D ], Zhejiang University, 2021.
  19. N. Zhang, M.G. Yang, B. Gao, Z. Li, D. Ni, Experimental investigation on unsteady pressure pulsation in a centrifugal pump with special slope volute, J. Fluid Eng. 137 (2015), 061103, https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4029574.
  20. Jianjun Feng, Honghong Yang, Chen Wang, Guojun Zhu, Jinling Lu, Xingqi Luo, Effect of non-uniform inflow on stall characteristics in centrifugal pumps, Water Dynam. Res. Prog. (A) (5) (2019) 551-558. The DOI: 10.16076/j.carolcarroll nki CJHD. 2019.05.001.
  21. Song Y, Huang S, Xu R, et al. Influence mechanism of the non-uniform inflow on performance of reactor coolant pump[J]. Ann. Nucl. Energy, 180.
  22. L. Ji, W. Li, W. Shi, L. Zhou, R. Agarwal, Experimental study of pressure pulsation in a mixed-flow pump with different tip clearances based on wavelet analysis, Shock Vib. 2020 (2020) 1-15, https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/9041686.
  23. H. Wang, H. Tsukamoto, Experimental and numerical study of unsteady flow in a diffuser pump at off-design conditions, J. Fluid Eng. 125 (2003) 767-778, https://doi.org/10.1115/1.1603305.