Experimental research on the characteristics of steam-water counter-current flow in the Pressurizer Surge Line assembly

To investigate Counter-Current Flow (CCF) characteristics in the Pressurizer Surge Line (PZR SL) assembly of the large advanced passive nuclear reactors, steam-water CCF experiments are carried out on a stainless steel test section, which is a 1:4 scaled-down model of the AP1000 PZR SL assembly. The inner diameter of the test PZR SL pipe is 90 mm, which also belongs to the large-diameter pipes, as same as the prototype PZR SL pipe, in the field of Counter-Current Flow Limitation (CCFL) researches. The present steam-water CCFL experiments are conducted under normal pressure and saturated temperature, with the PZR simulator collapse water level ranging from 350 to 900 mm. CCFL becomes severer at higher steam flow rate, and the most limiting CCFL effect locates between the PZR simulator bottom head and the vertical part of PZR SL pipe. The onset of CCFL and zero liquid penetration (ZP) are two critical conditions in the CCF development process, dividing the process into three stages: Before-CCFL, Partial-CCFL, and CCFL-ZP. According to the local CCFL conditions, the development of the CCFL process is also divided into four-regions since onset of CCFL. The present steam-water CCF data are well normalized in terms of dimensionless Kutateladze (Ku) numbers, and a Ku-type empirical partial CCFL correlation is developed. The comparisons of the present CCF data and partial CCFL correlation with the CCF data and correlations of former experiment researches validate that the present empirical partial CCFL correlation is conservative to predict steam-water partial CCFL in the prototype PZR SL assembly of the large advanced passive nuclear reactors.