Pressure drop measurements in LMFBR wire wrapped blanket assemblies

In this experiment, measurements of subchannel static pressure for an interior and edge subchannel were taken at two elevations in two wire-wrapped 61-pin bundles. One of the bundles has geometric characteristics of P/D = 1.067 and H/D = 8.0 (4 inch lead length and 0.501 inch rod diameter) and the other bundle has geometric characteristics of P/D = 1.067 and H/D = 4.0 (2 inch lead length and 0.501 inch rod diameter). The bundle average friction factors as well as the local subchannel friction factors for both interior and edge subchannels were determined from the experimental static pressure data. The average subchannel flow rates for both edge and interior subchannels were determined in a separate experiment. Results show that two correlations suggested by Rehme and Novendstern for the bundle average friction factor cannot predict the data within the range of experimental error. The bundle average friction factors for both bundles under test were underestimated by Rehme's correlation and overestimated by Novendstern's correlation. The results of the local subchannel friction factors indicate the effect of the wire lead length is more pronounced in the interior subchannel friction factor than in the edge subchannel friction factor. As the wire wrap lead length decreases, both interior and edge subchannel friction factors increase