Multiphase Science and Technology A Quarterly

ISSN for PRINT: 0276-1459

For Online Access

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2006, Volume18

Issue 4

111 pages

DOI: 10.1615/MultScienTechn.v18.i4

Issue price - $150.00

Mamoru Ishii
Therma-Hydraulics and Reactor Safety Laboratory, School of Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University, 400 Central Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA

Selim Kuran
Thermal-Hydraulics and Reactor Safety Laboratory, School of Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University, 400 Central Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA

X. Sun
Therma-Hydraulics and Reactor Safety Laboratory, School of Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University, 400 Central Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907; Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Ohio State University, 650 Ackerman Road, Columbus, OH 43202, USA

Ling Cheng
Thermal-Hydraulics and Reactor Safety Laboratory, School of Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University, 400 Central Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA

Yiban Xu
Thermal-Hydraulics and Reactor Safety Laboratory, School of Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University, 400 Central Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA

Ho J. Yoon
Thermal-Hydraulics and Reactor Safety Laboratory, School of Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University, 400 Central Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA

Shiripad T. Revankar
Thermal-Hydraulics and Reactor Safety Laboratory, School of Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University, 400 Central Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA

Several experiments have been performed in Purdue University Multi-Dimensional Integral Test Assembly (PUMA) facility to study the startup transient in a natural circulation BWR design. The strategy for the experimental study has been developed from pressure scaling based on single- and two-phase flow scaling laws. In the experiments, the differences of the stored energy of the solid structures and the core inlet subcooling between the facility and a natural circulation BWR design have been taken into account. A novel core inlet plate has been designed and installed to study the effect of the core inlet flow-loss coefficient on the startup instabilities, namely geysering and flashing-induced loop type oscillations. The experiments for the startup transient have been performed with and without considering the void-reactivity feedback. Based on a detailed analysis for the fuel heat conduction dynamics and neutron kinetics, the scaling criteria for the void-reactivity feedback simulation have been derived. By means of the local void fraction measurements with conductivity probes installed in the core section of the PUMA reactor pressure vessel, the void-reactivity feedback has been studied through the real-time solution of the point kinetic model equations. The presence of the void-reactivity coupling has been found to have a major destabilizing effect especially for the flashing-induced loop type oscillations.

DOI: 10.1615/MultScienTechn.v18.i4.20 Download article, 335-358 pages

Article price - $45.00

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