• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.275-281
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• 2016

Subcooled boiling under low pressure was numerically investigated using computational fluid dynamics(CFD). The wall boiling model was used for simulating the subcooled boiling; this model requires sub-models consisting of bubble departure diameter, nucleation site density and bubble departure frequency. The CFD code CFX provides the default models based on experimental data. Because these models are mostly developed under high pressure conditions, it would not be predicted well in low pressure conditions. Thus in this study, CFD validation for subcooled boiling under low pressure was analyzed. The numerical results were compared with experimental data from published paper. Simulations were performed with mass flux ranging from 250 to $750kg/m^2s$, heat flux ranging from 0.37 to $0.77MW/m^2$ and constant outlet pressure of 0.11 MPa. Employing the empirical correlation developed under low pressures could increase the accuracy of numerical analysis.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.7
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• pp.457-470
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• 2016

Most CFD codes, that mainly adopt the heat partitioning model as the wall boiling model, have shown low accuracies in predicting the two-phase flow parameters of subcooled boiling phenomena under low pressure conditions. In this study, a number of subcooled boiling experiments in vertical channels were analyzed using a thermal-hydraulic component code, CUPID. The prediction of the void fraction distribution using the CUPID code agreed well with experimental data at high-pressure conditions; whereas at low-pressure conditions, the predicted void fraction deviated considerably from measured ones. Sensitivity tests were performed on the submodels for major parameters in the heat partitioning model to find the optimized sets of empirical correlations suitable for low-pressure subcooled flow boiling. The effect of the K-factor on the void fraction distribution was also evaluated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.977-986
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• 2019

In the thermal-hydraulic system codes, such as MARS and RELAP5/MOD3, the Savannah River Laboratory (SRL) model has been adopted as a subcooled boiling model. It, however, has been shown that the SRL model cannot take into account appropriately the effects of inlet liquid velocity and hydraulic diameter on axial void fraction development. To overcome the problems, Ha et al. (2018) proposed a modified SRL model, which is applicable to low-pressure and low-Pe conditions (P < 9.83 bar and $Pe{\leq}70,000$) only. In this work, the authors extended the modified SRL model by proposing a new net vapor generation (NVG) model and a wall evaporation model so that the new subcooled boiling model can cover a wide range of thermal-hydraulic conditions with pressures ranging from 1.1 to 69 bar, heat fluxes of $97-1186kW/m^2$, Pe of 3600 to 329,000, and hydraulic diameters of 5-25.5 mm. The new model was implemented in the MARS code and has been assessed using various subcooled boiling experimental data. The results of the new model showed better agreements with measured void fraction data, especially at low-pressure conditions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.2771-2788
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• 2020

Experiments are conducted to study bubble flow behavior during the instability of subcooled boiling under uniform and non-uniform transverse heating. The non-uniform heat distribution introduces nonuniform bubble generation and condensation rates on the heated surface, which is different from the uniform heating. These bubble generation and condensation characteristics introduce a non-uniform local pressure distribution in the transverse direction, which creates an extra non-uniform pressure on the flowing bubbles. Therefore, different bubble flow behavior can be observed between uniform and non-uniform heating conditions. In the uniform heating, bubble velocity fluctuations are low, and the bubbles travel straight along the axial direction. In the non-uniform heating, more fluctuation in the bubble velocity occurs at low mass flow rate and high subcooled inlet temperatures, and reverse flow is observed. Additionally, the bubbles show a zigzag trajectory when they pass through the channel, which indicates the existence of cross flow in the transverse direction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.137.1-137
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• 2002

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.1022-1035
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• 2016

A double-tube once-through steam generator (DOTSG) consisting of an outer straight tube and an inner helical tube is studied in this work. First, the structure of the DOTSG is optimized by considering two different objective functions. The tube length and the total pressure drop are considered as the first and second objective functions, respectively. Because the DOTSG is divided into the subcooled, boiling, and superheated sections according to the different secondary fluid states, the pitches in the three sections are defined as the optimization variables. A multi-objective optimization model is established and solved by particle swarm optimization. The optimization pitch is small in the subcooled region and superheated region, and large in the boiling region. Considering the availability of the optimum structure at power levels below 100% full power, we propose a new operating scheme that can fix the boundaries between the three heat-transfer sections. The operation scheme is proposed on the basis of data for full power, and the operation parameters are calculated at low power level. The primary inlet and outlet temperatures, as well as flow rate and secondary outlet temperature are changed according to the operation procedure.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.544-554
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• 1995

Pool boiling of dilute aqueous solutions of polyethylene oxide polymer has been experimentally investigated for the purpose of understanding the physical mechanisms of the suppression of vapor explosions in this polymer solution. Tn solid spheres of 22.2mm and 9.5mm-diameter ore heat-ed and quenched in the polymer solutions of various concentrations at 3$0^{\circ}C$. The results showed that minimum film boiling temperature($\Delta$ $T_{MFB}$) in this highly-subcooled liquid rapidly decreased from over $700^{\circ}C$ for pure water to about 15$0^{\circ}C$ as the polymer concentration was increased up to 300ppm for 22.2mm sphere, and it decreased to 35$0^{\circ}C$ for 9.5mm sphere. This large decrease of minimum film boiling temperature in this aqueous polymer solution may explain its ability to suppress spontaneous vapor explosions. Also, tests with applying a pressure wave showed that the vapor film behaved more stable against an external disturbance at higher polymer concentrations. These observations together with the experimental evidences of vapor explosion suppression in dilute polymer solutions suggest that the application of polymeric additives such as polyethylene oxide as low as 300ppm to reactor emergency coolant be considered to prevent or mitigate energetic fuel-coolant interactions during severe reactor accidents.s.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.69-75
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• 2016

Bubble size is a key parameter for an accurate prediction of bubble behaviours in the multi-dimensional two-phase flow. In the current STAR CCM+ CFD code, a mechanistic bubble size model $S{\gamma}$ is available for the prediction of bubble size in the flow channel. As another model, Yun model is developed based on DEBORA that is subcooled boiling data in high pressure. In this study, numerical simulation for the gas-liquid two-phase flow was conducted to validate and confirm the performance of $S{\gamma}$ model and Yun model, using the commercial CFD code STAR CCM+ ver. 10.02. For this, local bubble models was evaluated against the air-water data from DEDALE experiments (1995) and Hibiki et al. (2001) in the vertical pipe. All numerical results of $S{\gamma}$ model predicted reasonably the two-phase flow parameters and Yun model is needed to be improved for the prediction of air-water flow under low pressure condition.