A study on the measurement of local void fraction

The importance of the study of two phase flow phenomena has increased for both fuel performance and safety analysis of nuclear power plants. In the analysis of two phase flow system, an accurate prediction of local void fractions is very important. In this study, a vertical rectangular subchannel having 4 electrically heated rods is constructed for the measurement of local void fraction under two phase flow. The measurement has been conducted by electrical conductivity probes and signal processing circuit which are known to be adequate to measuring local void fraction. Also experiments are performed with varying the inlet flow rate to search for radial void fraction profile accordingly to the different flow rate even with the same averaged void fraction. From the result of experiments, the validity of electrical conductivity probe and electrical circuit is confirmed. (Author)