Steady characteristic investigation on passive residual heat removal system of Chinese advanced PWR

Thermal-hydraulic characteristic investigation on passive residual heat removal system (PRHRS) of Chinese advanced PWR was conducted to provide input data for PRHRS design and to demonstrate the feasibility of unique design features. A total of 237 sets of test data at steady state have been obtained and the main influence factors on the two-phase natural circulation flow rate and residual heat removal capability were identified. On the basis of theory analysis, a correlation of two-phase natural circulation was obtained, and relative errors of 95% test data were less than ±16%. There is a considerable effect of the system status parameters on the threshold of height between heat source and heat sink, and its correlation of two-phase natural circulation system has been obtained. The steady characteristic research shows that PRHRS has the capability of removing the core decay power through natural circulation.