Two-Phase Wall and Interfacial Friction Forces in Triangle Tight Lattice Rod Bundle Subchannel

Abstract

In order to obtain the data on wall and interfacial friction forces for two-phase flows in a triangle tight lattice subchannel, adiabatic experiments were conducted for single-and two-phase flows under hydrodynamic equilibrium flow conditions. In the experiment, air was used as the test gas, while water and water with a surfactant as test liquids to know the effects of the reduced surface tension on the wall and the interfacial friction forces. The data showed that both the wall and the interfacial friction forces were higher in air-water with a surfactant system than air-water one. In the analysis, the respective data have been compared with the predicted values by existing correlations, and the existing correlations were modified to improve its prediction accuracy against the present data. The modified correlations can predict well the present data on the wall and the interfacial friction forces for both air-water and air-water with a surfactant systems.

Measurement of Two-Phase Flow Structure in a Narrow Rectangular Channel

“…In order to understand the two-phase flow phenomena in the narrow channel, many interesting studies have been carried out, for example, mini capillaries (Wong, et al, 1995, Han & Shikazono, 2009), rectangular channels with small gap (Mishima, et al, 1993, Xu, et al, 1999, Hibiki & Mishima, 2001) and rod bundles with tight-lattice geometry (Tamai et al, 2006, Sadatomi et al, 2007, Kawahara et al, 2008. Especially, a triangle tight-lattice rod bundle has been adopted as a fuel rod configuration in high conversion boiling water reactor (Iwamura et al, 2006, Uchikawa et al, 2007, Fukaya et al, 2009).…”

“…Sadatomi et al (2007) studied the void fraction characteristics in double subchannels with tight-lattice array and the data was compared with some correlations and subchannel codes. Furthermore, their group estimated the wall and the interfacial friction forces from the measured void fraction and pressure drop using the same subchannel (Kawahara et al, 2008). However, the advanced measurement techniques of the spatio-temporal phase distribution and velocity field are required for the high accurate analysis of the flow.…”

Icone19-43913 Visualization of Two-Phase Interfacial Structures in Narrow Channel

“…Sadatomi et al (2007) studied the void fraction in a double subchannel with dense-lattice array and the data was compared with some correlations and subchannel codes. Furthermore, their group estimated the wall and the interfacial friction forces from the measured void fraction and pressure drop using the same subchannel (Kawahara et al 2008). However, the advanced measurement techniques of the spatio-temporal distribution of the flow parameters such as void fraction and velocity are required for the high accurate analysis of the flow.…”