• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.548-560
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• 1999

An experimental investigation has been peformed to examine the effects of various geometrical parameters and an initial operating condition on the air-water countercurrent How limitation (CCFL) in a simulated PWR hot leg. A total of 118 experimental data for the onset of CCFL and zero liquid penetration were obtained for various combinations of test parameters. It was observe that the CCFL can be classified into three different categories: (the onset of CCFL, (the partial liquid delivery, and (r) the zero liquid penetration. The observed mechanisms of the onset of CCFL were different depending on the inlet water flow rate. The parametric effects of pipe diameter, horizontal pipe length, horizontal pipe length-to-diameter (L/D) ratio, and initial water level in the horizontal pipe of the test section on the onset of air-water CCFL were also examined. An empirical correlation for the onset of CCFL in a horizontal pipe connected to an inclined riser was developed in terms of Wallis flooding parameters for the low inlet water flow rate region. Comparisons of the present empirical correlation with the air-water CCFL data of large pipe diameters show that the present correlation agrees more closely with the experimental data than the existing CCFL correlations.

• 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.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.557-564
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• 2005

Air-water countercurrent flow limitation at perforated plates with four holes was investigated in a vertical tank to see the effects of the plate thickness, the number of hole, and the diameter of the hole on the onset of CCFL. The thickness of plates was 1 cm and 4 cm, with a relatively large hole diameter of 5 cm. The collapsed water level formed on the perforated plate and its distribution in the upper plenum were measured. The gas flow rate in the multi-hole plate is relatively higher than one in the single tube because some of holes in the multi-hole plate provide a flow path fur liquid with less air-liquid resistance than in the single tube. The onset of CCFL occurred at nearly the same air flow rate regardless of the plate thickness. The negligible effect of the plate thickness on CCFL means that the flooding is initiated at the top of the plate rather than at its bottom. It turns out that $j_k$ and $K_k$ better fit the data than $H_k$ when hole diameter is greater than 2.86 cm. In our experimental ranges, the collapsed water levels at the onset of CCFL ranged from 7.5 cm to 10.5 cm. There was no three dimensional distribution of water level before and after the onset of CCFL.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.475-479
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• 1995

During the hypothetical loss of coolant accident in the nuclear power plant the emergency core cooling water could not penetrate to the reactor core when the steam flow rate from the reactor core exceeds CCFL (Countercurrent flow limitation). The CCFL generated by earlier investigators are developed under the steady gas flow. However the flow instability in the reactor loop could generate oscillatory steam flow, hence their applicability under oscillating flow should be investigated. In this work, an experimental investigation of countercurrent flow in the vertical flow channel has been conducted under oscillatory gas flow. Pulsation of gas under oscillatory flow disturbs the flow pattern significantly and prevents flooding (CCFL) when its minimum value is less than the threshold gas flow rate value.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1821-1833
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• 2021

The gas-liquid counter-current flow limitation (CCFL) is closely related to efficient and safety operation of many equipment in industrial cycle. Air-water countercurrent flow experiments were performed in a tube with diameter of 25 mm to understand the triggering mechanism of CCFL. A parallel electrode probe was utilized to measure film thickness whereby the time domain and frequency domain characteristics of liquid film was obtained. The amplitude of the interface wave is small at low liquid flow rate while it becomes large at high liquid flow rate after being disturbed by the airflow. The spectral characteristic curve shows a peak-shaped distribution. The crest exists between 0 and 10 Hz and the amplitude decreases with the frequency increase. The analysis of visual observation and characteristic of film thickness indicate that two flooding mechanisms were identified at low and high liquid flow rate, respectively. At low liquid flow rate, the interfacial waves upward propagation is responsible for the formation of CCFL onset. While flooding at high liquid flow rate takes place as a direct consequence of the liquid bridging in tube due to the turbulent flow pattern. Moreover, it is believed that there is a transition region between the low and high liquid flow rate.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.11
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• pp.3973-3982
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• 2023

As for two-phase flow in rectangular channels, the flow regimes especially like churn-turbulent and annular flow are significant for the physical problem like Countercurrent Flow Limitation (CCFL). In this study, the rectangular channels with cross-sections of 4 × 66 mm, 6 × 66 mm, 8 × 66 mm are adopted to investigate the flow regimes of air-water vertical upward two phase flow under adiabatic condition. The gas and liquid superficial velocities are 0 ≤ j_g ≤ 20m/s and 0.25 ≤ j_f ≤ 3m/s respectively which covering bubbly to annular flow. The flow regimes are identified by random forest algorithm and the flow regime maps are obtained. As the results, the transitional void fraction from slug to churn turbulent flow fluctuate from 0.47 to 0.58 which is significantly affected by the dimensional size of channel and flow rate. Besides, the void fraction at transitional points from churn-turbulent (slug) to annular flow are 0.66-0.67, which are independent with the gap size. Furthermore, a new criteria of slug to churn-turbulent flow is established in this study. In addition, by introducing the interfacial force model, the criteria of churn-turbulent (slug) flow to annular flow is verified.