a b s t r a c tAn experimental study on post-dryout heat transfer was conducted in the High-pressure WAter Test (HWAT) loop at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. The objective of the experiments was to investigate the influence of flow obstacles on the post-dryout heat transfer. The investigated operational conditions include mass flux equal to 500 kg/m 2 s, inlet sub-cooling 10 K and system pressure 5 and 7 MPa. The experiments were performed in annuli in which the central rod was supported with five pin spacers. Two additional types of flow obstacles were placed in the exit part of the test section: a cylinder supported on the central rod only and a typical BWR grid spacer cell. The measurements indicate that flow obstacles improve heat transfer in the boiling channel. It has been observed that the dryout power is higher when additional obstacles are present. In addition the wall temperature in post-dryout heat transfer regime is reduced due to increased turbulence and drop deposition. The present data can be used for validation of computational models of post-dryout heat transfer in channels with flow obstacles.

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The purpose of this paper is to present the experimental setup, experimental method and results of the recent post-dryout heat transfer investigations in an annulus with pin spacers. The experiments were performed in the thermal-hydraulic laboratory at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden. The experimental facility has an annular test section which consists of two double-heated concentric tubes manufactured of Inconel 600. Five levels of pin spacers were installed along the test section to keep the rod and the tube equidistant during experiments. The experimental matrix includes measurements of wall temperature distributions for single phase and two-phase flows, for both convective boiling and post-dryout heat transfer regimes. The influence of variations in mass flux (500–1500) kg/(m2s) and inlet subcooling 10 and 40 K at system pressure of 7 MPa were investigated. The experimental results indicate that post dryout heat transfer is influenced by the pin spacers. In particular it has been observed that the dry patch appearing in the test section can be quenched downstream of the pins-spacer. The current results provide additional experimental database which can be used for validation of post-dryout heat transfer models including the flow obstacle effects.

This paper describes the experimental setup, instrumentation and procedures which have been developed in the thermal-hydraulic laboratory at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden, to perform new post-dryout heat transfer investigations in an annulus with flow obstacles. Previous investigations performed in the same laboratory indicated that flow obstacles had a considerable influence on the post-CHF heat transfer. The measured heat transfer enhancement was significantly under-predicted by existing models. However, the net effect of obstacles could not be deduced from the measurements, since reference - obstacle-free measurements - had not been performed. In addition, the number of thermocouples that could be installed inside the heated rod was limited to 8. These deficiencies have been removed in the current approach. Firstly, the present design of the test section allows for measurements both with and without flow obstacles. In this way the net effect of the obstacles will be captured. Secondly, a newly developed technique allowed the installation of 40 thermocouples inside of the heated rod. An additional 40 thermocouples have been installed on the external wall of the heated tube. Therefore, a significant improvement of the accuracy of measurements can be expected. The present arrangement of instrumentation is suitable to perform measurements of heat transfer under both steady-state and transient conditions.