Experimentelle Untersuchungen und analytischen Modellierung von adiabaten Siedevorgängen in Naturumlaufsystemen

Doctoral thesis (2020)

Modern nuclear reactors increasingly use passive safety systems to ensure the integrity of the containment in the event of an accident. Natural circulation systems allow passive heat removal from the ... [more ▼]

Modern nuclear reactors increasingly use passive safety systems to ensure the integrity of the containment in the event of an accident. Natural circulation systems allow passive heat removal from the containment to the environment. One of their disadvantages is that instabilities develop as soon as evaporation occurs in the system. This thesis investigates instabilities in two-phase natural circulation systems. After comprehensive literature review on existing test facilities, the first part of this work presents experimental investigations on the stability behaviour of natural circulation systems. To conduct these investigations, the INTRAVIT test facility was designed and constructed at the University of Luxembourg. INTRAVIT offers both a high degree of flexibility in the design of the pipelines and the advantage of a direct, electrically controllable heat supply. Two measurement campaigns were carried out. During the first campaign, the influence of the heating tube inclination angle on the instabilities was investigated at constant riser pipe length. During the second measurement campaign, the influence of the riser pipe length and the influence of the flow resistance in the downcomer pipe were investigated at a constant inclination angle of the heating tube. For these investigations, temperatures, mass flow and the distribution of void in the riser pipe were analysed. In addition, pressure response during the instabilities was measured to investigate the pressure shocks caused by water hammering. The second part of this work develops an analytical model to decribe evaporation processes in adiabatic pipes. The model consists of several sub models that calculate the interfacial surface density and the evaporation rate as a function of the flow pattern. An integrated nucleation model calculates the onset of the evaporation. The derived model was implemented in the system code ATHLET. Experiments from the INTRAVIT measurement campaigns were then modelled using the new evaporation model as well as the standard evaporation model. Both were compared with the measurement data. The design and construction of the INTRAVIT test facility is a foundation for future research on instabilities in natural circulation systems. Moreover, a new evaporation model is presented, which can easily be adapted and refined by modifying individual sub models. [less ▲]