A study on the flow of POSRV in reactor coolant system

When a safety valve equipped in a nuclear power plant opens in an instant by an accident, a moving shock wave propagates downstream the valve, inducing a complicated unsteady flow field. The moving shock wave may exert severe load to the structure. So, to reduce the load acting on the wall of POSRV, a gradual opening of POSRV is adopted in general. In theses connections, a numerical work is performed to investigate the effect of valve opening time on the unsteady flow fields downstream of the valve. Compressible, two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations are used with the finite volume method. The obtained results show that sharp pressure rise through moving shock for the case of instant opening is attenuated by employing the gradual opening of valve. It is turned that the flows for the two cases of gradual valve opening time show the similar to that of highly under-expanded one in jet structure having expansion and compression waves and Mach stem. Also, comparing with the results for the two cases of opening time, the shorter the valve opening is, the pressure gradient at the downstream of the valve becomes softly