Application results of a prototype ultrasonic liquid film sensor to a 7 MPa steam–water two-phase flow experiment

Abstract

A prototype ultrasonic liquid film sensor was applied to a high-temperature steam-water two-phase flow experiment. The liquid film sensor was vertically installed in a loop which was connected to HUSTLE, a multi-purpose steam source test facility. The hydraulic diameter of the measurement section was 9.4 mm. The output waveforms of the sensor were acquired with a digital oscilloscope. The fluid temperature and system pressure were kept at 288 • C and 7.2 MPa, respectively, during the experiment. The pulse-echo method was used to calculate the liquid film thickness. The cross-correlation calculation was utilized to determine the time difference between the pulse reflected at the sensor surface and the pulse reflected at the liquid film surface. The time-averaged liquid film thicknesses were less than 0.055 mm in the annular flow condition. The increase of the time-averaged thickness was small with the change of the gas momentum flux. The film thicknesses measured with the sensor were compared with the past experimental results; the former were smaller than one-fourth of the thickness estimated as the mean film thickness. The comparison results suggested that the continuous liquid sublayer thickness was measured with the liquid film sensor.

Cepstral Subtraction for Ultrasonic Signal Processing in Liquid-film Thickness Measurement under High-temperature and High-pressure Conditions of Boiling Water Reactors

“…、Aoyama, G. et al [8,9]は、BWR 通常運転条件における実測デー タの拡充に向け、286 °C、7 MPa の高温高圧環境 に適用可能な非接触型の計測技術を開発した。そ のうち Aoyama, G. et al [8,9]…”