An experimental study on the critical heat flux for low flow of water in a non-uniformly heated vertical rod bundle over a wide range of pressure conditions

An experimental study of the critical heat flux (CHF) has been performed for a water flow in a non-uniformly heated vertical 3 × 3 rod bundle under low flow and a wide range of pressure conditions. The experiment was especially focused on the parametric trends of the CHF and the applicability of the conventional CHF correlations to a return-to-power conditions of a main steam line break accident whose conditions might be a low mass flux, intermediate pressure, and a high inlet subcooling. The effects of the mass flux and pressure on the CHF are relatively large and complicated in the low pressure conditions. At a high mass flux or a low critical quality, the local heat flux at the CHF location sharply decreases with an increasing local critical quality. However, at a low mass flux or a high critical quality, the local heat flux at the CHF location shows a nearly constant value regardless of the increase of the critical quality. The CHF data at the very low mass flux conditions are correlated well by the churn-to-annular flow transition criterion or the flow reversal phenomena. Several conventional CHF correlations predict the present return-to-power CHF data with reasonable accuracies. However, the prediction capabilities become worse in a very low mass flux of below about 100 kg/(m² s).