Correlation of Quench Phenomena for Bottom Flooding during Loss-of-Coolant Accidents

The three quench modes based on the observation with an outside-heated quartz tube experiment, i.e. (1) liquid column type, (2) dryout type and (3) droplet-rewetting type are discussed quantitatively to provide correlations for a reflood analysis code.

For the quench velocity of liquid column type and dryout type, using the data of PWR-FLECHT experiments, a correlation is obtained. This correlation is compared with experimental data and found that it can predict the inverse quench velocity within ±20% accuracy under the following conditions: pressure 1.0–4.1 kg/cm²-a, quench temperature 370~510°C, local subcooling 0~30°C, flow rate 5~25 cm/sec.

For the quench temperature of droplet-rewetting type, a correlation is derived and the prediction from it gives the qualitative agreement with few available data.