Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Effect of inlet throttling on thermohydraulic instability in a large scale water-based RCCS: An experimental study

  • Qiuping Lv (Argonne National Laboratory, Nuclear Science & Engineering Division) ;
  • Matthew Jasica (Argonne National Laboratory, Nuclear Science & Engineering Division) ;
  • Darius Lisowski (Argonne National Laboratory, Nuclear Science & Engineering Division) ;
  • Zhiee Jhia Ooi (Argonne National Laboratory, Nuclear Science & Engineering Division) ;
  • Rui Hu (Argonne National Laboratory, Nuclear Science & Engineering Division) ;
  • Mitch Farmer (Argonne National Laboratory, Nuclear Science & Engineering Division)
  • Received : 2023.06.08
  • Accepted : 2023.10.31
  • Published : 2024.02.25
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Abstract

The objective of the present experimental study is to investigate the effect of inlet throttling on the thermohydraulic stability of a large scale water-based Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS). The test was performed using the water-based Natural convection Shutdown heat removal Test Facility (NSTF) at Argonne, which represented a ½ axial scale and 12.5° sector slice of the full scale Framatome 625 MWt SC-HTGR RCCS concept. A two-phase steady state was first established through direct condensate refill, followed by increased inlet throttling over 10 stages, corresponding to a loss coefficient K over the range of 0.05-653. With the inlet throttling gradually increased, the system experienced a unique transition process between stabilization and destabilization. Through a stability analysis, three instability mechanisms were identified in the present test, including a compound mechanism due to both natural circulation oscillations (NCOs) and density wave oscillations (DWOs), Type-II DWOs, and geysering.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy's Advanced Reactor Technology (ART) program under contract number DE-AC02-06CH11357.

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