Scaling for Different Containment Passive Cooling Design Under LOCA Conditions

The containment passive cooling feature is one important indicator for advanced Pressurize Water Reactors (PWRs). Several innovative passive cooling designs have been proposed in industries, such as double steel cooling structure (DSS) in AP1000, the Vertical Heat exchanger in VVER, the water cooling wall in High Temperature Reactor (HTR), and ice cooler in some Generation II PWR plants. A universal passive cooling experimental facility is under design and construction. The object of this facility is performance testing and optimization of new passive cooling facilities. Considering of the diverse characteristics of the different passive cooling system, include mechanism of heat and mass transfer, conditions for operation and facility structures, a theoretical scaling study is necessary to be applied before a technical design process. Some general passive cooling models were made based on existing industrial designs. To enhance the compatibility of these models and future designs, pivotal and common parameters for these passive cooling designs were provided by scaling study. The main test facility will be built based on these parameters. For every different design, special appurtenances will be added to the main facility to complete the test device for special purposes. Time scale, facility height and physical properties were the most important parameters for the main test facility. Heat transfer area ratio, hydraulic diameter, volume flow rate and wall thickness of DSS was defined for appurtenances design.