An experimental program has been completed to study the behaviour of sheath wall temperatures in the Bruce Power Station Low Void Reactivity Fuel (shortened hereafter to Bruce LVRF) bundles under post-dryout (PDO) heat-transfer conditions. The experiment was conducted with an electrically heated simulator of a string of nine Bruce LVRF bundles, installed in the MR-3 Freon heat transfer loop at the Chalk River Laboratories (CRL), Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL). The loop used Freon R-134a as a coolant to simulate typical flow conditions in CANDU® nuclear power stations. The simulator had an axially uniform heat flux profile. Two radial heat flux profiles were tested: a fresh Bruce LVRF profile and a fresh natural uranium (NU) profile. For a given set of flow conditions, the channel power was set above the critical power to achieve dryout, while heater-element wall temperatures were recorded at various overpower levels using sliding thermocouples. The maximum experimental overpower achieved was 64%. For the conditions tested, the results showed that initial dryout occurred at an inner-ring element at low flows and an outer-ring element facing internal subchannels at high flows. Dry-patches (regions of dryout) spread with increasing channel power; maximum wall temperatures were observed at the downstream end of the simulator, and immediately upstream of the mid-bundle spacer plane. In general, maximum wall temperatures were observed at the outer-ring elements facing the internal subchannels. The maximum water-equivalent temperature obtained in the test, at an overpower level of 64%, was significantly below the acceptable maximum temperature, indicating that the integrity of the Bruce LVRF will be maintained at PDO conditions. Therefore, the Bruce LVRF exhibits good PDO heat transfer performance.
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14th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering
July 17–20, 2006
Miami, Florida, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Nuclear Engineering Division
ISBN:
0-7918-4243-6
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Measurements of Sheath Temperature Profiles in Bruce LVRF Bundles Under Post-Dryout Heat Transfer Conditions in Freon
Y. Guo,
Y. Guo
Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., Chalk River, ON, Canada
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D. E. Bullock,
D. E. Bullock
Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., Chalk River, ON, Canada
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I. L. Pioro,
I. L. Pioro
Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., Chalk River, ON, Canada
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J. Martin
J. Martin
Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., Chalk River, ON, Canada
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Y. Guo
Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., Chalk River, ON, Canada
D. E. Bullock
Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., Chalk River, ON, Canada
I. L. Pioro
Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., Chalk River, ON, Canada
J. Martin
Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., Chalk River, ON, Canada
Paper No:
ICONE14-89621, pp. 651-659; 9 pages
Published Online:
September 17, 2008
Citation
Guo, Y, Bullock, DE, Pioro, IL, & Martin, J. "Measurements of Sheath Temperature Profiles in Bruce LVRF Bundles Under Post-Dryout Heat Transfer Conditions in Freon." Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering. Volume 2: Thermal Hydraulics. Miami, Florida, USA. July 17–20, 2006. pp. 651-659. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE14-89621
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