Gas Driven Circulation in an Adiabatic Air-Water Loop With Reference to Accelerator Driven Systems

In order to investigate the fluid dynamic mechanisms of the gas driven circulation, with reference to the accelerator driven systems (ADS), an experimental research with water driven by air injected at the inlet of the vertical riser in an adiabatic test rig has been carried out. The present experimental apparatus consists essentially of two vertical plexiglass pipes 3.8 m long, 0.08 m I.D., that are connected at the bottom by a horizontal pipe and at the top by a large open tank. The test rig is equipped with differential pressure transducers and two quick closing valves to measure the pressure drops and the average void fraction. The air flow rate ranges up to 5000 Nl/h, at 7 bar pressure, and the liquid flow rate can reach the value of more than 5 kg/s. The research aim is to investigate the effect of the superficial gas velocity on the superficial liquid velocity, on the void fraction and on the pressure drops, for a given geometry. The test data have been compared with some two-phase pressure drops and void fraction correlations. The geometry effect has been investigated too.