(An) Experimental investigation of critical flow rates of subcooled water through short pipes with small diameters

Abstract

The primary objective of this study is to imprave our understanding on critical flow phenomena in a small size leak and to develop a model which can be used to estimate the critical mass flow rates through reactor vessel or primary coolant pipe wall. For this purpose, critical two-phase flow phenomena of subcooled water through short pipes (100 ≤ L ≤ 400 mm) with small diameters (3.4 ≤ D ≤ 7.15 mm) have been experimentally investigated for wide ranges of subcooling (0~199℃) and pressure (0.5~2.0MPa). To examine the effects of various parameters (i.e., the location of flashing inception, the degree of subcooling, the stagnation temperature and pressure, and the pipe size) on the critical two-phase flow rates of subcooled water, a total of 135 runs were made for various combinations of test parameters using four different L/D test sections. Experimental results that show effects of various parameters on subcooled critical two-phase flow rates are presented. The measured static pressure profiles along the discharge pipe show that the critical flow rate can be strongly influenced by the flashing location. The locations of saturation pressure for different values of the stagnation subcooling have been consistently determined from the pressure profiles. Based upon the test results, two important parameters have been identified. These are cold state discharge coefficient and dimensionless subcooling, which are found to efficiently take into account the test section geometry and the stagnation conditions, respectively. A semi-empirical model has been developed to predict subcooled two-phase flow rates through small size openings. This model provides a simple and direct calculation of the critical mass flow rates with information on the initial condition and on the test section geometry. Comparisons between the mass fluxes calculated by present model and a total of 755 selected experimental data from 9 different investigators show that the agreement is fairly good...