Analysis on Flow Characteristic of Nuclear Heating Reactor

The experiment was carried out on the test loop HRTL-5,which simulates the geometry and system design of a 5 MW Nuclear heating reactor. The analysis was based on a one-dimensional two-phase flow drift model with conservation equations for mass, steam mass, energy and momentum. Clausius-Clapeyron equation was used for the calculation of flashing front in the riser. A set of ordinary equation, which describes the behavior of two-phase flow in the natural circulation system, was derived through integration of the above conservation equations in subcooled boiling region,bulk boiling region in the heated section and in the riser. The method of time-domain was used for the calculation. Both static and dynamic results are presented. System pressure, inlet subcooling and heat flux are varied as input parameters. The results show that, firstly, subcooled boiling in the heated section and void flashing in the riser have significant influence on the distribution of the void fraction, mass flow rate and stability of the system, especially at lower pressure, secondly , in a wide range of two-phase flow conditions, only subcooled boiling occurs in the heated section. For the designed two-phase regime operation of the 5 MW nuclear heating reactor, the temperature at the core exit has not reaches its saturation value. Thirdly, the mechanism of two-phase flow oscillation, zero-pressure-drop , is described. In the wide range of inlet subcooling (0 KAT28 K) there exists three regions for system flow condition, namely, (1) stable two-phase flow, (2) bulk and subcooled boiling unstable flow, (3) subcooled boiling and single phase stable flow. The response of mass flow rate, after a small disturbance in the heat flux, is showed in the above inlet subcooling range, and based on it the instability map of the system is given through experiment and calculation.