Experimental Observation of the General Trends of the Steady State and Instability Behavior of Supercritical Water Natural Circulation

Experimental study on steady state and instability behavior of subcritical and supercritical water natural circulation was performed in a rectangular loop (NPIC-SCNCL) in NPIC, with the pressure of 10 and 21.1∼24.8MPa. According to the experimental results, in steady state the natural circulation displayed higher mass flow rate, heating power and outlet water temperature of the heated zone under supercritical pressure (22.2∼24.8Mpa) than those under subcritical pressure (10MPa). The effects of heating power and water pressure on the steady state behavior of supercritical water natural circulation were also carried out. In the experiments, natural circulation showed instability both in supercritical and subcritical conditions. The results showed that the natural circulation instability appeared when the outlet water temperature of the heated zone got close to the critical temperature under supercritcial pressure. In comparion, the natural circulation instability appeared when the outlet water temperature of the heated zone got close to the saturated temperature in subcritical condition. The instability behavior of supercritical water natural circulation showed the fluctuations of the mass flow rate, water temperature and pressure et al. In the experiments, we also observed that the fluctuations of the parameters mentioned above for supercritical water natural circulation instability could disappear when the heating power is big enough which seemed that the natural circulation returned to a new steady state.