Application of film dryout model in liquid metal CHF prediction

Liquid metals have been used as coolants of several kinds of nuclear reactors, and the prediction of critical heat flux (CHF) is rather important for the design, safety and economy of these reactors. A film dryout model considering the deposition and entrainment of droplets was established to obtain the CHF of liquid metal in annular flow flowing in tubes. The correlations of deposition rate, entrainment rate and so on for conventional fluids were used, and the initial entrainment fraction was determined according to experimental data. Results showed that the correlations for conventional fluids could be used for liquid metals approximately, but relatively large error might occur for large heat flux. The accuracy of this model for sodium and potassium was similar for small heat flux, but had some differences for large heat flux. Special correlations of deposition rate, entrainment rate and so on should be developed to predict the CHF of liquid metals more accurately.