Evaluation on Coupling of Wall Boiling and Population Balance Models for Vertical Gas-Liquid Subcooled Boiling Flow of First Loop of Nuclear Power Plant

Guang Hu, Yue Ma and Qianfeng Liu
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Guang Hu: Institute of Thermal Energy Technology and Safety, National Research Center of Helmholtz Association, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76344 Karlsruhe, Germany
Yue Ma: Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Qianfeng Liu: Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 21, 1-29

Abstract: An accurate prediction of the interphase behaviors of the vertical gas-liquid subcooled boiling flow is meaningful for the first loop of a nuclear power plant (NPP). Therefore, the interphase behaviors including the bubble size distribution in the first loop of the NPP are analyzed, evaluated, and validated using various wall boiling models coupled with the population balance model (PBM) kernels in this paper. Firstly, nondimensional numbers of the first loop of the NPP and DEBORA (Development of Borehole Seals for High-Level Radioactive Waste) experiment test cases are analyzed with approximation. Secondly, five active nucleation site density models N n coupled with the PBM kernel combination, four kernel combinations (C1~C4) with the N n models are calculated and analyzed. Lastly, various behaviors including the bubble size distribution Sauter mean diameter (SMD) d p , void fraction α , gas superficial velocity j g , and liquid superficial velocity j l are compared and validated with the experimental data of the DEBORA-1 ( P = 2.62 MPa). The results indicate that the two N n models are suitable for the calculations of thefirst loop of the nuclear power plant. For instance, for the bubble size distribution SMD d p , the specified N n model with C1 (maximum relative error 9.63%) has relatively better behaviors for the first loop of the NPP. Especially, the combination C1 is applicable for the calculation of the bubble size distribution d p , void fraction α and liquid superficial velocity j l while C4 is suitable for the calculation of the gas superficial velocity j g . These results can provide guidance for the numerical computation of the subcooled boiling flow in the first loop of the NPP.

Keywords: wall boiling; subcooled boiling; population balance model; bubble condensation; bubble coalescence and breakup; first loop; NPP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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