Experimental Assessment of the Two-Phase Flow in a Large Inclined Channel

In order to assess the cooling performance of the core catcher system, a model facility has been constructed in POSTECH using scaling analysis. This facility consists of horizontal, inclined and vertical section. To investigate the flow parameters in each section, the instrumentation is developed to measure two-phase characteristics such as local void fraction, bubble velocity and bubble size. To date, there has been a considerable amount of research conducted on the internal structure of two-phase flow in pipe. However, the number of attempts made on the experiment regarding large inclined channels has been still limited. One of the reasons for this lack of data is the difficulty in constructing experimental facility. In this paper, the parameters of the flow in the inclined section are presented. The inclined channel is 10 degree from the horizontal with the rectangular cross section of 300 cm². The distributions of local parameters are evaluated through the data of double sensor conductivity probes installed at different locations along the inclined section. The data sets of the structure of two-phase flow in an inclined large channel was acquired. The air was injected through the metal foam installed on the top surface wall of the inclined section. Water level was kept below the top of the inclined section so the amount of water was fixed during the experiment. 9 probes set up at the different locations to get the data of local two-phase parameters. The measurement at each location was conducted in 5 minutes to determine the mean value of each parameter. The result of local void fraction profiles at different locations indicates that the void distribution primarily changes along the height of the inclined section. The slug flow occurs in the channel which results in most bubbles attached to the top surface wall. This fact explains the high local void fraction near the top wall and its rapid decline towards the bottom wall of the inclined section. The translational velocity as well as the chord length of elongated bubbles were estimated. The result of double sensors probes was validated by means of DSLR camera. The speed of camera's shutter was set at 1000 frames per second in order to capture the flow behaviors. The cooling performance of core catcher system can be assessed by means of the data sets of internal structure of the two-phase flow in the inclined section