• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1796-1809
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• 2021

The subchannel of a research reactor used to generate high power density is designed to be narrow and rectangular and comprises plate-type fuels operating under downward flow conditions. Critical heat flux (CHF) is a crucial parameter for estimating the safety of a nuclear fuel; hence, this parameter should be accurately predicted. Here, machine learning is applied for the prediction of CHF in a narrow rectangular channel. Although machine learning can effectively analyze large amounts of complex data, its application to CHF, particularly for narrow rectangular channels, remains challenging because of the limited flow conditions available in existing experimental databases. To resolve this problem, we used four CHF correlations to generate pseudo-data for training an artificial neural network. We also propose a network architecture that includes pre-training and prediction stages to predict and analyze the CHF. The trained neural network predicted the CHF with an average error of 3.65% and a root-mean-square error of 17.17% for the test pseudo-data; the respective errors of 0.9% and 26.4% for the experimental data were not considered during training. Finally, machine learning was applied to quantitatively investigate the parametric effect on the CHF in narrow rectangular channels under downward flow conditions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.546-553
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• 2022

Narrow rectangular channels are employed in nuclear research reactors that use plate-type nuclear fuels, high heat-flux compact heat exchangers, and high-performance micro-electronics cooling systems. Two-phase flow in narrow rectangular channels is important, and it needs to be better understood because it is considerably different than that in round tubes. In this study, mechanistic models were developed for the flow regime transition criteria for various flow regimes in co-current air-water two-phase flow for vertical downward flow inside a narrow rectangular channel. The newly developed criteria were compared to a flow regime map of downward air-water two-phase flow inside a narrow rectangular channel with a 2.35-mm gap width under ambient temperature and pressure conditions. Overall, the proposed model showed good agreement with the experimental data.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06e
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• pp.229-234
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• 2001

An adiabatic counter-current vertical two-phase flow of air and water in narrow rectangular channels with offset strip fm was investigated experimentally. Tests were systematically performed with downward liquid superficial velocities and upward gas velocities covering 0 to 0.06 m/s and 0 to 2.5 m/s ranges, respectively. Two-phase flow regimes were classified by examining the video images of flow patterns in transparent test sections of 760 mm long and 100 mm wide channel with gaps of 3.0 and 5.0 mm. The channel average void fraction was measured by the quick-closing valve method. Unlike the flow regimes in the channels without fin, where bubbly, slug, chum, and annular flow were identified, only bubbly and chum flow regimes were found for the channels with offset strip fin. However the existence of fin in the channels showed negligible effects on the void fraction. Instead counter-current flow limitations were found to happen at lower air superficial velocity once offset strip fin was introduced in narrow rectangular channels.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.429-439
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• 2003

Counter-current two-phase flows of air- water in narrow rectangular channels with offset strip fins have been experimentally investigated in a 760 mm long and 100 mm wide test section with 3.0 and 5.0 mm gap widths. The two-phase flow regime, channel-average void fractions and two-phase pressure gradients were studied. Flow regime transition occurred at lower superficial velocities of air than in the channels without fins. In the bubbly and slug flow regimes, elongated bubbles rose along the subchannel formed by fins without lateral movement. The critical void fraction for the bubbly-to-slug transition was about 0.14 for the 3 mm gap channel and 0.2 for the 5 mm gap channel. respectively. Channel-average void fractions in the channels with fins were almost the same as those in the channels without fins. Void fractions increased as the gap width increased, especially at high superficial velocity of air. The presence of fins enhanced the two-phase distribution parameter significantly in the slug flow, where the effect of gap width was almost negligible. Superficial velocity of air dominated the two-phase pressure gradients. Liquid superficial velocity and channel gap width has only a minor effect on the pressure gradients.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.11b
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• pp.136-141
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• 2000

A study of counter-current two-phase flow in narrow rectangular channels has been performed. Two-phase flow regimes were experimentally studied in 760 mm long and 100 mm wide test sections with 2.0 and 3.0mm gaps. The resulting data have been compared to previous transition models. For the transition from bubbly to slug flow the superficial velocity of gas increased as the gap width increased. The comparison of experimental data to the transition model developed by Taitel and Barnea showed relatively good agreement for the bubbly-to-slug transition in the case of 2mm gap width. For the criteria of Mishima and Ishii to be applicable to the slug-to-churn transition the distribution parameter should be well defined for narrow channels. Even though the gap width of narrow channels increased the superficial gas velocity did not change for the transition form chum to annular flow regime. For the chum-to-annular transition the model of Taitel and Barnea showed discrepancies with experimental data, especially in the channel with larger gap.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.441-446
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• 2007

An experimental study on the countercurrent two-phase flow in narrow rectangular channels has been peformed. Countercurrent flow limitation (CCFL) was investigated using air and water in 760mm long, 100mm wide, vertical test sections with 1 and 3mm channel gaps. Tests were systematically performed with downward liquid superficial velocities and upward gas velocities covering 0 to 0.125 and 0 to 3.5m/s ranges, respectively. As the gap width of rectangular channel increased the CCFL water superficial velocity decreased for the given air superficial velocity. Slight increase of the air superficial velocity resulted in the abrupt decrease of water velocity when $j_g=2{\sim}4m/s$. The critical superficial velocity of air, at which the downward flow of water was no longer allowed, also decreased with the increase of gap width. The experimental results were compared with the previous correlations, which were mainly for round tubes, and the qualitative trends were found to be partially acceptable. However the quantitative discrepancies were hardly neglected. New correlation of CCFL was developed and showed good agreement with the experimental data.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.953-963
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• 2015

There is an increasing need to understand the thermal-hydraulic phenomena, including the critical heat flux (CHF), in narrow rectangular channels and consider these in system design. The CHF mechanism under a saturated flow boiling condition involves the depletion of the liquid film of an annular flow. To predict this type of CHF, the previous representative liquid film dryout models (LFD models) were studied, and their shortcomings were reviewed, including the assumption that void fraction or quality is constant at the boundary condition for the onset of annular flow (OAF). A new LFD model was proposed based on the recent constitutive correlations for the droplet deposition rate and entrainment rate. In addition, this LFD model was applied to predict the CHF in vertical narrow rectangular channels that were uniformly heated. The predicted CHF showed good agreement with 284 pieces of experimental data, with a mean absolute error of 18. 1 % and root mean square error of 22.9 %.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.304-311
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• 2001

An experimental study on the countercurrent two-phase flow in narrow rectangular channels has been performed. The void fraction and the pressure gradient were investigated using air and water in 760 mm long, 100 mm wide. vertical test sections with 2, 3 and 5 mm channel gaps. Tests were systematically performed with downward liquid superficial velocities and upward gas velocities covering 0 to 0.08 and 0 to 2.5 m/s ranges. respectively. the experimental results were compared with the previous correlations, which were mainly for round tubes, and the qualitative trends were found to be in good agreements. However the quantitative discrepancies were hardly neglected. as the superficial gas velocities increased, the void fraction increased and the pressure gradient decreased, where the effects of the liquid superficial velocities were infinitesimal. as the gap width of the rectangular channel increased the void fraction and the 2-phase frictional pressure gradient approached those values for the round tubes. Equi-periphery diameter, rather than the hydraulic diameter, seemed to be more effective in the analysis of two-phase flow behavior.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.941-950
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• 2001

A study of counter-current two-phase flow in narrow rectangular channels has been performed. Two-phase flow regimes were experimentally investigated in a 760mm long and 100mm wide test section with 2.0 and 5.0mm gap widths. The resulting flow regime maps were compared with the existing transition criteria. The experimental data and the transition criteria of the models showed relatively good agreement. However, the discrepancies between the experimental data and the model predictions of the flow regime transition become pronounced as the gap width increased. As the gap width increased the transition gas superficial velocities increased. The critical void fraction for the bubbly-to-slug transition was observed to be about 0.25. The two-phase distribution parameter for the slug flow was larger for the narrower channel. The uncertainties in the distribution parameter could lead to a disagreement in slug-to-churn transition between the experimental findings and the transition criteria. For the transition from churn to annular flow the effect of liquid superficial velocity was found to be insignificant.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.128-140
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• 1997

A new super compact condenser(SCC), which has been developed recently is especially suitable for an alternative refrigerant HFC-134a due to its high performance and compactness. The SCC is composed of two pipe headers, baffles, narrow multi-rectangular channels, and louvered fin arrays. Alternating inlet and outlet by the inserted baffles in pipe headers guide refrigerant to and from the narrow multi-rectangular channels. Since the flow rate and its lengh are changed depending on the number and location of baffles, the corresponding pressure drop and heat transfer rate are changed. The present study aims to theoretically and experimentally investigate the effects of baffle location and its number on the pressure drop and thermal performance of the SCC with 40 multi-rectangular channels. The results show that the present method provides an acceptable prediction of pressure drop and heat transfer rate for a 4 pass SCC. However, the model significantly under predicts the performance of a 3 pass SCC, which may be attributed to the phase separation of refrigerant flowing through header pipes. Pressure drop is more signifi- cantly influenced than heat transfer rate by the baffle location.