Occurrence of critical heat flux during blowdown with flow reversal

A small-scale experiment using Freon-11 at 1300F and 65 psia in a well-instrumented transparent annular test section was used to study the occurrence of critical heat flux (CHF) during blowdown with flow reversal. The inner stainless steel tube of the annulus was uniformly heated over its 2 ft length. Inlet and exit void fractions were measured by a capacitance technique. Flow regime transition was observed with high speed photography. A 1-hr contact time between Freon-11 and nitrogen at 1300F and 60 psig was found to greatly affect the steady-state subcooled boiling initial conditions. Delay in bubble growth was observed in adiabatic blowdown runs. This was caused by the thermodynamic nonequilibrium conditions required for the unstable bubble growth. For the diabatic runs, equilibrium was more closely approached in the test section during the early phase of blowdown. Critical heat flux did not occur immediately during the flow decay in an approximately 60 msec reversal period. The first or early CHF which occurred at about 400 msec was independent of the blowdown volume and did not propagate upward. An annular flow pattern appeared at the onset of this CHF which occurred only at the lower 8 in. of the heated zone