Experimental Study of Thermal and Hydraulic Characteristics of Pressurizer-Type Heating Container During Blowdown Process

Abstract Blowdown process is an important process in LOCA. Studying the internal thermal hydraulic characteristics of the pressurizer during LOCA blowdown process can help to accurately analyze the process of the whole LOCA, which is of great significance to reduce the hazard of accidents and improve the safety of nuclear power plants. An experiment system of blowdown process under low pressure conditions is built, and it uses a pressure gauge and a differential pressure level gauge to measure the pressure and liquid level in the pressurizer-type heating container, and uses a thermocouple to measure the temperature in the pressurizer-type heating container at different heights and distances from the centerline. The changes of pressure, liquid level and temperature characteristics during the blowdown process were obtained. The research results show that the higher the heating power, the greater the slope of pressure change in the heating container, and the pressure changes from negative to positive growth; The greater the heating power is, the faster the liquid level decreases, and the liquid level decreases sharply after the blowdown inflection point. The greater the heating power is, the greater the rate of temperature change, from negative growth to positive growth. The temperature change rate after the blowdown inflection point is reduced. As the height increases, the temperature inside the container first increases and then decreases; the further away from the container’s centerline, the higher the measured temperature.