QUENCH FRONT PROPAGATION IN THE ANNULAR CHANNEL

Abstract

Understanding the quench front propagation during bottom core reflooding is crucial for the effective cooling during the LOCA accident. The results presented in this paper were obtained on an experimental loop with an annular test section. The test section consists of a vertical electrically heated stainless steel tube with outer diameter 9 mm and length of 1.7 m. The heated tube is placed inside a glass tube with the inner diameter 14.5 mm. Water mass flux during the reflooding is in the range from 100 kg.m⁻².s⁻¹ up to 140 kg.m⁻².s⁻¹ and the initial wall temperature of the stainless steel tube is in the range from 250 °C up to 800 °C. The presented results show the influence of the initial conditions on the quench front propagation and the complexity of the phenomenon.