A parametric study of condensation-induced water hammer in nuclear power plants

Condensation-induced water hammer (CIWH), which may occur in systems involving steam and water simultaneously, has a series of processes such as formation of water slug, trapping a steam cavity, depressurization due to steam condensation, accelerating slug caused pressure difference over it and final slug impact. These processes are dependent on water flow rate in a pipe, water temperature, water subcooling, steam pressure, size of slug and cavity, and heat transfer coefficient at interface between steam and water. In the present work, the prediction of conditions to initiate water hammer has been made with full scale by applying the open channel flow theory. These conditions are expressed in terms of water flow rate according to changes of steam pressure, water subcooling, and pipe diameter. Under these conditions that induce CIWH, the effect of parameters which influence on slug impact pressure and cavity collapse rate have been studied with full scale. Also, the impact loads that may be applied to piping design were evaluated under various system conditions