Mechanistic CHF modeling for natural circulation applications in SMR

A mechanistic critical heat flux correlation has been developed for a wide range of operating conditions which include low mass fluxes of 540-890 kg/m2-s, high pressures of 12-13 MPa, and critical heat fluxes of 835-1100 kW/m2. Eleven experimental data points have been collected over these conditions to inform the development of the model using bundle geometry. Errors of within 15% have been obtained with the proposed model for predicting the critical heat flux value, location, and critical pin power for a non-uniform heat flux applied to a 2 × 2 bundle configuration.