Erratum to “Experimental study on the air/water counter-current flow limitation in a model of the hot leg of a pressurized water reactor”

• Published in: Nuclear engineering and design 2011-08, Vol.241 (8), p.3359-3372
• Main Authors: Deendarlianto, Vallée, Christophe, Lucas, Dirk, Beyer, Matthias, Pietruske, Heiko, Carl, Helmar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0029-5493; 1872-759X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2011.02.028

► We performed the air/water flooding experiments in a flat model of a PWR hot leg. ► The cross section is rectangular (width x height = 0.05 m x 0.25 m). Experimental parameters were system pressure, liquid mass flow and deflooding effect. ► Wallis-parameter can be applied to rectangular cross-sections by using the channel height as length. This paper replaces the paper published in the journal by Deendarlianto et al. (2008). Because of an error in the implementation of the air flow meter some of the data given by Deendarlianto et al. (2008) are wrong. They are corrected within the present paper. The general results and conclusions remain unchanged. An experimental investigation on the air/water counter-current two-phase flow in a horizontal rectangular channel connected to an inclined riser has been conducted. This test-section representing a model of the hot leg of a pressurized water reactor is mounted between two separators in a pressurized experimental vessel. The cross-section and length of the horizontal part of the test-section are (0.25 m × 0.05 m) and 2.59 m, respectively, whereas the inclination angle of the riser is 50°. The flow was captured by a high speed camera in the bended region of the hot leg, delivering a detailed view of the stratified interface as well as of dispersed structures like bubbles and droplets. Counter-current flow limitation (CCFL), or the onset of flooding, was found by analyzing the water levels measured in the separators. The counter-current flow limitation is defined as the maximum air mass flow rate at which the discharged water mass flow rate is equal to the inlet water mass flow rate. From the high-speed observations it was found that the initiation of flooding coincides with the formation of slug flow. Furthermore, a slight hysteresis was noticed between flooding and deflooding. The CCFL data was compared with similar experiments and empirical correlations available in the literature. Therefore, the Wallis-parameter was calculated for the rectangular cross-sections by using the channel height as length, instead of the diameter. The agreement of the CCFL curve is good, but the zero liquid penetration was found at lower values of the Wallis parameter than in most of the previous work. This deviation can be attributed to the special rectangular geometry of the hot leg model of HZDR, since the other investigations were done for pipes.