AP600 passive residual heat removal heat exchanger test

The AP600 reactor is a pressurized water reactor being designed to utilize a passive residual heat removal (PRHR) heat exchanger as the safety grade means for residual heat removal. The PRHR heat exchanger is utilized during many design basis events and is especially important in mitigating non-loss-of-coolant accidents such as loss of normal feedwater and feedwater line break. The PRHR system transfers decay heat from the reactor coolant system to the containment by heating and boiling the water in the in-containment refueling water storage tank (IRWST). The steam produced transfers heat to the atmosphere by condensing on the inside of the containment shell. The condensate is collected by gutters on the containment shell and is returned to the IRWST, which provides a heat sink for an indefinite amount of time. The PRHR test facility is a prototypical representation of the PRHR heat exchanger with respect to tube material, diameter, pitch, and tube length, such that the gravity-induced flow characteristics in the pool are representative of the design. The main scaling parameter for the pool is the pool volume per tube, which preserves the buoyancy and pool mixing effects. A generalized PRHR boiling correlation was developed using the approach given bymore » Rohsenow such that pressure effects can be induced.« less