Onset of Nucleate Boiling in narrow, rectangular channel for downward flow under low pressure

Bubble nucleation itself is less important safety issue for nuclear reactor, but it can easily lead to critical thermal-hydraulic events such as OFI (Onset of Fluid Instability) or CHF (Critical Heat Flux) when a research reactor operates under atmospheric conditions. Thus, the ONB (Onset of Nucleate Boiling) margin for normal operation in research reactor is recommended. In the IAEA-TECDOC-233 report (IAEA, 1980), the ONB margin for a research reactor is recommended as well. Although the ONB margin in a research reactor is emphasized for such reasons, only a few experiments have been performed for downward flow direction in a narrow, rectangular channel. In addition, several existing ONB prediction correlations are arguably applicable to the flow boiling condition in the narrow rectangular channel because most of them are developed based on Hsu's model, which was developed in the pool boiling cases. In the study, ONB experiments for various inlet temperature conditions and mass flux conditions were performed with increasing heat flux step by step. Based on experimental data, the effect of inlet temperature and mass flux on the wall superheat and heat flux at ONB was investigated. In addition, existing ONB prediction correlations were evaluated for predicting wall superheat and heat flux at ONB based on the experimental data. A new ONB prediction correlation was then developed for better-evaluation and was compared with other correlations.