Application results of a prototype ultrasonic liquid film sensor to a 7 MPa steam–water two-phase flow experiment |
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Authors: | Goro Aoyama Kiyoshi Fujimoto Kenichi Katono Takuji Nagayoshi Atsushi Baba Kenichi Yasuda |
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Affiliation: | 1. Research &2. Development Group, Hitachi, Ltd., 7-1-1 Omika-cho, Hitachi-shi, Ibaraki-ken 319-1292, Japan;3. Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd., 3-1-1 Saiwai-cho, Hitachi-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 317-0073 Japan |
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Abstract: | A prototype ultrasonic liquid film sensor was applied to a high-temperature steam–water two-phase flow experiment. The liquid film sensor was vertically installed in a loop which was connected to HUSTLE, a multi-purpose steam source test facility. The hydraulic diameter of the measurement section was 9.4 mm. The output waveforms of the sensor were acquired with a digital oscilloscope. The fluid temperature and system pressure were kept at 288 °C and 7.2 MPa, respectively, during the experiment. The pulse-echo method was used to calculate the liquid film thickness. The cross-correlation calculation was utilized to determine the time difference between the pulse reflected at the sensor surface and the pulse reflected at the liquid film surface. The time-averaged liquid film thicknesses were less than 0.055 mm in the annular flow condition. The increase of the time-averaged thickness was small with the change of the gas momentum flux. The film thicknesses measured with the sensor were compared with the past experimental results; the former were smaller than one-fourth of the thickness estimated as the mean film thickness. The comparison results suggested that the continuous liquid sublayer thickness was measured with the liquid film sensor. |
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Keywords: | BWR two-phase flow high-temperature liquid film thickness steam?water ultrasonic pulse-echo method cross-correlation |
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