Comparative Evaluation of Coolant Mixing Experiments at the ROCOM, Vattenfall, and Gidropress Test Facilities

Kliem, S.; Hemström, B.; Bezrukov, Y.; Höhne, T.; Rohde, U.

doi:https://doi.org/10.1155/2007/25950

Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations

On this page

Abstract References Copyright Related Articles

Research Article | Open Access

Volume 2007 | Article ID 025950 | https://doi.org/10.1155/2007/25950

Comparative Evaluation of Coolant Mixing Experiments at the ROCOM, Vattenfall, and Gidropress Test Facilities

S. Kliem,¹B. Hemström,²Y. Bezrukov,³T. Höhne,¹and U. Rohde¹

Academic Editor: Regina Galetti

Received25 May 2007

Accepted25 Oct 2007

Published09 Dec 2007

Abstract

Coolant mixing is an important mitigative mechanism against reactivity accidents caused by local boron dilution. Experiments on coolant mixing were carried out at three different test facilities representing three different reactor types. These are the ROCOM test facility modelling a German KONVOI-type reactor, the Vattenfall test facility being a model of a Westinghouse three-loop PWR, and the Gidropress test facility modelling a VVER-1000 PWR. The scenario of the start-up of the first main coolant pump was investigated in all three facilities. The experiments were accompanied by velocity measurements in the downcomer for the same scenario in the ROCOM and the Vattenfall test facilities. A similar flow structure was found in these measurements in both cases. A maximum of the velocity is measured at the opposite side in regard to the position of the loop with the starting-up pump whilst a recirculation area was found just below this inlet nozzle in both facilities. The analysis of the slug mixing experiments showed also comparable flow behaviour. In accordance with the velocity measurements, the first part of the deboration is also found on the opposite side. In this region, the maximum deboration is measured in all three cases. These maximum values are in the same order of magnitude for nearly identical initial slug volumes.

References

U. Grundmann and U. Rohde, “Investigations on a boron dilution accident for a VVER-440 type reactor by the help of the code DYN3D,” in Proceedings of ANS Topical Meeting on Advances in Reactor Physics: Reactor Physics Faces the 21st Century, vol. 3, pp. 464–471, Knoxville, Tenn, USA, April 1994.
View at: Google Scholar
S. Kliem, U. Rohde, and F.-P. Weiss, “Core response of a PWR to a slug of under-borated water,” Nuclear Engineering and Design, vol. 230, no. 1–3, pp. 121–132, May 2004.
View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
D. Alvarez, O. Daubert, L. P. Janvier, and J. P. Schneider, “Three dimensional calculations and experimental investigations of the primary coolant flow in a 900 MW PWR vessel,” in Proceedings of the 5th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-5 '92), vol. 2, pp. 586–592, Salt Lake, Utah, USA, September 1992.
View at: Google Scholar
F. Alavyoon, B. Hemström, N. G. Andersson, and R. I. Karlsson, “Experimental and computational approach to investigating rapid boron dilution transients in PWRs,” in Proceedings of the CSNI Specialist Meeting on Boron Dilution Reactivity Transients, State College, Pa, USA, October 1995.
View at: Google Scholar
O. I. Melikhov, V. I. Melikhov, S. E. Yakush, Y. Bezrukov, and S. A. Logvinov, “Analysis of boron dilution in VVER-1000 reactor,” in Proceedings of the Annual Meeting on Nuclear Technology, pp. 117–120, Bonn, Germany , May 2001, INFORUM GmbH.
View at: Google Scholar
D. Häfner et al., “HDR safety program-thermal mixing in the cold leg and downcomer of the HDR test rig,” 1990, Report PHDR 91-89, FZ, Karlsruhe, Germany.
View at: Google Scholar
H. Tuomisto, “Thermal-hydraulics of the Loviisa reactor pressure vessel overcooling transients, Imatran Voima Oy,” 1987, Research Report IVO-A-01/87.
View at: Google Scholar
R. J. Hertlein, K. Umminger, S. Kliem, H.-M. Prasser, T. Höhne, and F.-P. Weiss, “Experimental and numerical investigation of boron dilution transients in pressurized water reactors,” Nuclear Technology, vol. 141, no. 1, pp. 88–107, 2003.
View at: Google Scholar
C.-R. Choi, T.-S. Kwon, and C.-H. Song, “Numerical analysis and visualization experiment on behavior of borated water during MSLB with RCP running mode in an advanced reactor,” Nuclear Engineering and Design, vol. 237, no. 7, pp. 778–790, 2007.
View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
M. Gavrilas and K. Kiger, “ISP-43: rapid boron dilution transient experiment,” 2000, Comparison Report, NEA/CSNI/R 22.
View at: Google Scholar
B. Woods, UM 2x4 loop experimental findings on the effect of inertial and buoyancy forces on annular flow mixing for rapid boron dilution transients, M.S. thesis, University of Maryland, College Park, Md, USA, 2001.
H.-M. Prasser, G. Grunwald, T. Höhne, S. Kliem, U. Rohde, and F.-P. Weiss, “Coolant mixing in a pressurized water reactor: deboration transients, steam-line breaks, and emergency core cooling injection-experiments and analyses,” Nuclear Technology, vol. 143, no. 1, pp. 37–56, 2003.
View at: Google Scholar
T. Höhne, S. Kliem, and U. Bieder, “Modeling of a buoyancy-driven flow experiment at the ROCOM test facility using the CFD codes CFX-5 and Trio_U,” Nuclear Engineering and Design, vol. 236, no. 12, pp. 1309–1325, 2006.
View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
B. Hemström, “Data sets of the slug mixing experiments at the Vattenfall test facility,” 2004, EU/FP5 FLOMIX-R report, FLOMIX-R-D06, Vattenfall Utveckling AB, CDROM.
View at: Google Scholar
B. Hemström et al., “Validation of CFD codes based on mixing experiments (Final Report on WP4),” 2005, EU/FP5 FLOMIX-R report, FLOMIX-R-D11, Vattenfall Utveckling (Sweden).
View at: Google Scholar
G. M. Cartland Glover, T. Höhne, S. Kliem, U. Rohde, F.-P. Weiss, and H.-M. Prasser, “Hydrodynamic phenomena in the downcomer during flow rate transients in the primary circuit of a PWR,” Nuclear Engineering and Design, vol. 237, no. 7, pp. 732–748, 2007.
View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
U. Rohde, S. Kliem, B. Hemström, T. Toppila, and Y. Bezrukov, “The European project FLOMIX-R: description of the slug mixing and buoyancy related experiments at the different test facilities,” 2005, (Final report on WP 2), Report FZR–430, Rossendorf, Dresden, Germany.
View at: Google Scholar
S. Kliem, T. Höhne, H.-M. Prasser, U. Rohde, and F.-P. Weiss, “Experimental investigation of coolant mixing in the RPV of a PWR during natural circulation conditions,” in Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-12 '04), vol. 3, pp. 711–720, 2004, (CD-ROM), paper 49424.
View at: Google Scholar

Copyright

Copyright © 2007 S. Kliem et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

PDF Download Citation Order printed copies

Views

371

Downloads

1185

Citations