Investigation of the transition from forced to natural convection in the research reactor Munich II

The new research reactor Munich II (FRM-II), which is under construction at the Technical University Munich, Germany, makes use of a newly developed compact reactor core consisting of a single fuel element, which is assembled of two concentric pipes. Between the fuel element's inner and outer pipe 113 involutely bent fuel plates are placed rotationally symmetric, forming 113 cooling channels of a constant width of 2.2 mm. After a shut down of the reactor, battery supported cooling pumps are started by the reactor safety system in order to remove the decay heat by a downwards directed forced flow. Three hours after they have been started, the cooling pumps are shut down and so-called 'natural convection flaps' are opened by their own weight. Through a flow path, which is provided by the opening of the natural convection flaps, the decay heat is given off to the water in the reactor pool after the direction of the flow has changed and an upwards directed natural convection flow has developed. At the Department for Nuclear and New Energy Systems of the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, a test facility has been built in order to confirm the concept of the decay heat removal in the FRM-II, to acquire data of single and two phase natural convection flows and to detect the dry out in a narrow channel. The thermohydraulics of the FRM-II are simulated by an electrically heated test section, which represents one cooling channel of the fuel element. At first experiments have been performed, which simulated the transition from forced to natural convection in the core of the FRM-II, both at normal operation and at a complete loss of the decay heat removal pumps. In case of normal operation, the transition from forced to natural convection takes place single phased. If a complete loss of the active decay heat removal system occurs, the decay heat removal is ensured by a quasi-steady two phase flow. In a second test series minimum heat flux densities leading to pressure pulsations up to limiting amplitudes of 0.1 bar, 0.2 bar and 0.3 bar at the transition from forced to natural convection have been determined. Further tests have been performed to determine minimum heat flux densities leading to boiling processes in the cooling channel and critical heat flux densities causing dry outs of the cooling channel at downwards directed forced flow. During the tests, flow reversals have been observed because of the buoyancy forces in the coolant causing a mixed convection flow. The last test series, which has been finished in March 1999, has been performed in order to determine critical heat flux densities during the transition from forced to natural convection and to measure the occurring pressure amplitudes. All results prove the possibility to remove the decay heat of the FRM-II by natural convection, even in case of a complete loss of the active decay heat removal system. Above this, large safety margins in the FRM-II concerning pressure pulsations, beginning of boiling and dry out could be verified. (author)