Abstract: Natural circulation systems are widely applied in nuclear power plants because of their excellent passive safety features. For floating nuclear power plants, there may be no height difference between the heat source and sink due to space limitation for some natural circulation systems. The heated section is connected with the heat sink by the horizontal pipes. Moreover, the heat sink is usually the ocean. Therefore, in such natural circulation systems, the steam produced in the heated section will inevitably contact the subcooling water in the ocean, which may cause the condensation induced water hammer (CIWH). Previous research has shown that the water hammer could cause transient high-pressure pulses and serious damage to the device. Therefore, it is extremely significant to study the characteristics of CIWH, which can provide certain guidance on how to eliminate the CIWH in a natural circulation system. In this paper, the equal-height-difference natural circulation system (EHDNCS) is designed and built to experimentally research the characteristic of CIWH by using visualization methods under natural circulation conditions. The electric heating rods are used as the heated source, and a big water tank is adopted to simulate the ocean. The fundamental phenomena are described in detail. In addition, the influence factors on the CIWH are discussed e.g. heating power and water temperature in the water tank. The experimental results show that the position where the CIWH occurs is greatly affected by parameters at the outlet of the heated section. Moreover, the water temperature in the water tank determines whether the CIWH occurs or not.  
Keywords: water hammer; equal-height-difference natural circulation system; low pressure; condensation induced water hammer  
   
 


Experimental Investigation on Temperature Characteristics of Direct Contact Condensation in a Natural Circulation System

Division / Sponsors: 
Power Division & Nuclear Engineering Division (NED)

Power Conference
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/POWER/POWER2020/volume/83747

International Conference on Nuclear Engineering
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ICONE/ICONE2020/volume/83761

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