Measurement of Gas Entrainment Rate From Free Surface by Vortex

A sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor is now at the developing stage in Japan. One concern for safety is cover gas entrainment into the sodium coolant. The gas entrainment rate into liquid by the vortex formed on the free surface was examined experimentally. Liquid flowed into a cylindrical vessel from a wall tangentially. Swirl flow was formed in the vessel, and then liquid drained from the bottom outlet of the vessel. A hollow vortex was formed on the free surface in the test vessel. Air was entrained under the free surface of the vortex and carried away from the bottom of the vessel. The flow state of the gas entrainment was visually observed by using a high speed video camera. The gas entrainment rate into liquid was measured. In the present experiments, test fluid was changed from water in the previous experiments to 20 cSt silicone oil. The liquid level in the test vessel was 25 mm in the present experiments. Only the vortex-type gas-entrainment was observed as in the previous experiments since the liquid level was low. The flow state observed at the flow visualization section of the outlet pipe was only a semi-annular flow. The initiation of the gas entrainment was delayed in the case of silicone oil compared with the case of water. The increasing rate of the gas entrainment to the liquid velocity is milder in the case of silicone oil than in the case of water.