(A) study on the countercurrent and cocurrent annular flow critical heat flux under low flow conditions

Abstract

Empirical and phenomenological investigations have been performed for countercurrent and cocurrent annular flow critical heat fluxes(CHFs) under low flow conditions. The CHF characteristics on finned surfaces were also examined by experiments and analyses for finned and unfinned geometries. A new form of $C^2_w$ in the Wallis flooding correlation was proposed for a general use in predicting the flooding limited CHF at tubes, annuli and rectangular channels under zero and very low flow conditions. The suggested correlation showed reasonable predictions compared to the measured CHF with an root-mean-square(RMS) error of 18.8%. A physical model for the prediction of a CHF location at a zero inlet flow condition was improved to take into account entrainments from the liquid film and to extend the applicable range to subcooled inlet flow conditions. The improved model showed reasonable agreements with the Katto data, and provided details of the CHF mechanism due to flooding. It was analytically confirmed that the flooding is a triggering mechanism of a countercurrent annular flow CHF under zero and very low flow conditions. It was also revealed that the heat flux effect such as the nucleation induced entrainment in the liquid film should be considered for the analysis of a flooding limited CHF, especially in small L/D geometry. In addition, an attempt was made to predict CHF values by applying the improved model with predetermined CHF locations. The results showed that the predictions by the improved physical model agreed reasonably with the experimental data. Annular flow hydrodynamic models of Whalley, Levy and Katto, which were developed for high flow conditions, were compared with available low flow CHF data to make out the applicability of the models to low flow conditions. As a result, it was found that Katto model, which improved the fault of Whally and Levy models, could be applied to predict low flow CHF with some improvements although the model underpred...