Serpentine tube heat transfer characteristic under accident condition in gas cooled reactors

In nuclear reactors of the Magnox or advanced gas Cooled type, serpentine tubing is used in some designs to generate steam in a once through arrangement. The calculation of accident conditions using two phase flow codes requires knowledge of the heat transfer behavior of the boiler steam side. A series of experiments to study the blowdown characteristics of a typical serpentine boiler section was devised in order to validate the MARTHA section of the MACE code used by nuclear Electric. The tests were carried out on the Thermal Hydraulics Experimental Research Assembly (THERA) loop at Manchester University. The Thermal Hydraulic Experimental Research Assembly was designed to operate with pressures up to 180 bar and temperatures of 450degC. The geometry and dimensions of this test section were similar to part of a gas cooled reactor boiler of the Hinkley Point design. Blowdown from a pressure of 60 bar with subcoolings of 5degC, 50degC, 100degC formed the main part of the programme. A set of tests was conducted using discharge orifices of different sizes to produce depressurization times from 30 s to 10 mins, and in a few cases, the duration of blowdown approached 1 hour. These times were defined using the criterion of blowdown end as a final pressure of 10% of the initial pressure. Pressures, wall and fluid temperatures were all measured at average time intervals of 1.1s during the excursion and an inventory of the remaining water content in the serpentine was taken when the blowdown ended. Some tests were also conducted at an initial pressure of 30 bar. The results obtained show interesting stratification effects for the relatively fast discharge, with substantial wall circumferential temperature variations. For these tests, a relatively small water inventory remained after blowdown. The discharge characteristics of the serpentine in terms of orifice size have been mapped, and tests at 30 bar show the equivalence in terms of orifice size have been mapped. Depressurization from an initial pressure of 60 bar, with fluid subcooling of 5 K, 50 K, and 100 K was controlled by discharging the test section contents through suitably chosen orifices to produce blowdown to 10% of the initial pressure over a time scale of 30 s to 3600 s. Pressures and temperatures in the serpentine were measured at average time intervals of approximately 1 s. (author)