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Experimental study of primary and secondary side coupling natural convection heat transfer characteristics of the passive residual heat removal system in AP1000

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Abstract

Passive residual heat removal heat exchanger (PRHR HX), which is a newly designed equipment in the advanced reactors of AP1000 and CAP1400, plays an important role in critical accidental conditions. The primary and secondary side coupling heat transfer characteristics of the passive residual heat removal system (PRHRS) determine the capacity to remove core decay heat during the accidents. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the heat transfer characteristics and develop applicable heat transfer formulas for optimized design. In the present paper, an overall scaled-down natural circulation loop of PRHRS in AP1000, which comprises a scaled-down in-containment refueling water storage tank (IRWST) and PRHR HX models and a simulator of the reactor core, is built to simulate the natural circulation process in residual heat removal accidents. A series of experiments are conducted to study thermal-hydraulic behaviors in both sides of the miniaturized PRHR HX which is simulated by 12 symmetric arranged C-shape tubes. For the local PRHR HX heat transfer performance, traditional natural convection correlations for both the horizontal and vertical bundles are compared with the experimental data to validate their applicability for the specific heat transfer condition. Moreover, the revised natural convection heat transfer correlations based on the present experimental data are developed for PRHR HX vertical and lower horizontal bundles. This paper provides essential references for the PRHRS operation and further optimized design.

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Abbreviations

A :

Area/m2

c p :

Specific heat of constant pressure/(J·kg−1·°C−1)

d :

Diameter/m

D :

Rod diameter/m

D h :

Hydraulic characteristic length/m

g :

Gravitational acceleration/(m·s−2)

Gr :

Grashof number

h :

Heat transfer coefficient/(W·m−2·°C−1)

H :

Height/m

l :

Length/m

Nu :

Nusselt number

n :

Number of tubes in the bundle

p :

Pressure/Pa

Pr :

Prandtl number

Q :

Total heat flux in energy balance equation/W

q :

Heat flux/(W·m−2)

Ra :

Rayleigh number

Re :

Reynolds number

Ri :

Richardson number

T :

Temperature/°C

u :

Velocity/(m·s−1)

W :

Mass flow rate/(kg·s−1)

x :

Length along lateral direction/m

y :

Length along wide direction/m

z :

Length along height direction/m

Δ:

Difference between two quantities

λ :

Thermal conductivity/(W·m−1·°C−1)

ρ :

Density of fluid/(kg·m−3)

α :

Thermal expansion coetficient/°C−1

v :

Kinematic viscosity/(m2·s−1)

in:

Tube inner side

out:

Tube outside

sat:

Saturation

w:

Wall

wo:

Tube outside wall

wi:

Tube inside wall

IRWST:

In-containment refueling water storage tank

ONB:

Onset of nucleate boiling

PRHR HX:

Passive residual heat removal heat exchanger

HTC:

Heat transfer coefficient

PRHRS:

Passive residual heat removal system

RCS:

Reactor coolant system

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science and Technology Major Project of China (Grant No. 2017ZX06004002-006-002) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51906069).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nuclear Science and Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Zhimin Qiu, Daogang Lu, Jingpin Fu, Li Feng & Yuhao Zhang

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Passive Safety Technology for Nuclear Energy, Beijing, 102206, China

    Zhimin Qiu, Daogang Lu, Jingpin Fu, Li Feng & Yuhao Zhang

Authors
  1. Zhimin Qiu
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  2. Daogang Lu
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  3. Jingpin Fu
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  4. Li Feng
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  5. Yuhao Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuhao Zhang.

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Qiu, Z., Lu, D., Fu, J. et al. Experimental study of primary and secondary side coupling natural convection heat transfer characteristics of the passive residual heat removal system in AP1000. Front. Energy 15, 860–871 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-021-0744-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-021-0744-1

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