Downcomer boiling phenomena during the reflood phase of a large-break LOCA for the APR1400

Downcomer boiling phenomena in a conventional pressurized water reactor has an important effect on the transient behavior of a postulated large-break LOCA (LBLOCA), because it can degrade the hydraulic head of the coolant in the downcomer and consequently affect the reflood flow rate for a core cooling. To investigate the thermal hydraulic behavior in the downcomer region, a test program for a downcomer boiling (DOBO) is being progressed for the reflood phase of a postulated LBLOCA. Test facility was designed as a one side heated rectangular channel which adopts a full-pressure, full-height, and full-size downcomer-gap approach, but with the circumferential length reduced 47.08-fold. The test was performed by dividing it into two-phases: (I) visual observation and acquisition of the global two-phase flow parameters and (II(a)) measurement of the local bubble flow parameters on the measuring planes along five elevations. In the present paper, the test results of Phase-I and a part of Phase-II(a) were introduced.