Separate-effect drainage tests in a core make-up tank

• Published in: Progress in nuclear energy (New series) 2022-06, Vol.148, p.104226, Article 104226
• Main Authors: Zhu, Mingzhang, Chang, Huajian, Wang, Han, Zhu, Qingzi, Wang, Jiapeng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cooling; Cooling systems; Core make-up tank; Core making; Drainage; Heat conductivity; Heat transfer coefficients; Hydraulics; Liquid levels; Loss of coolant accidents; Nuclear fuel elements; Nuclear reactor components; Nuclear reactors; Nuclear safety; Pressure effects; Pressure reduction; Separate effect tests; Test facilities; Thermal-hydraulic phenomena
• ISSN: 0149-1970; 1878-4224
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pnucene.2022.104226

Passive safety systems are widely used in the advanced nuclear reactors, such as AP1000 and CAP1400. As an important component in the passive safety system, the core make-up tank (CMT) plays a key role for the safety injection and the core decay heat removal. Although the structure of the CMT system is simple, it involves many thermal-hydraulic phenomena, most of which significantly impact the peak temperature of the fuel cladding and the liquid level of the core. Since the CMT not only provides full-pressure injection but also triggers the auto depressurization system by its liquid level signal during small-break loss of coolant accident (SBLOCA), its thermal hydraulic behaviors significantly affect the performance of the passive core cooling system (PXS). Therefore, separate effect tests are inevitable to verify the feasibility of CMT applied to passive safety and injection systems and to study its operating characteristics. In this work, a separate-effect CMT test facility was designed and constructed. Experiments were performed to investigate the CMT's thermal hydraulic characteristics under the effects of system pressure, steam condensation, and flow friction. The study found that the delay drainage phenomenon is the result of a pressure balance between the pipe line and the gravity head. Whether delayed drainage occurs depends on the degree of subcooling of the fluid at the top of the CMT. The flowrate is not affected by the heat transfer coefficient of steam direct contact condensation. The flow friction of the drainage pipeline has no effect on the delayed drainage process, but has a great influence on the gravity drainage process.