Measurement techniques of local parameters in the downcomer boiling experiment of APR1400

Abstract

In order to investigate boiling phenomena experimentally in the downcomer during LBLOCA with Direct Vessel Injection (DVI), which is a new Safety Injection System (SIS) of Advanced Power Reactor 1400 MW (APR1400), several parameters should be measured through the verification of their applicability. In this study, measurement techniques of the parameters are developed for the downcomer boiling experiment; local phase velocities, local void fraction and heat flux from the heated wall. The experiment has been performed with the heated wall, which has a thickness of 8.2 cm and a height of 32.5 cm and made of the same material as the prototype (APR1400) with chrome coating against rusting. The newly developed pitot tube is applied to the measurement of local liquid velocity and its calibration curve is obtained experimentally with the consideration of the effect according to water temperature and hole size changes. The developed pitot tube measures the local liquid velocity with 0.69 % deviation and it is confirmed that the water temperature and geometrical change does not affect the calibration curve. The high-speed camera and commercial software are used to measure the local vapor velocity with the accuracy of 0.06 m/sec per pixel and the procedure is confirmed in the present study. It turns out that the vapor velocity is insensitive to void size. High-speed camera and image processing are used to measure the local void fraction with the determined intensity criterion for distinguishing each phase and the results are compared with the bulk void fraction by differential pressure transmitters. In the actual experiment, the developed method is applied successfully and the results show that the criterion of intensity has little effect on local void fraction. And, it is observed that the tendency between the measured local and bulk void faction is maintained with time. In order to measure heat flux from the heated wall, two heat flux measurement techniques are deve...