Two-phase flow in a full-scale loop seal facility

An experimental program has been carried out to study two-phase behaviour of a PWR cold leg loop seal during loss-of-coolant accidents. The experimental facility comprises a full-scale cold leg with a reactor coolant pump simulator. Three separate air/water test series were performed to determine the onset of slugging in the horizontal pipe, the residual water mass and the total two-phase pressure drop in the loop seal.The results of flow regime transition experiments have been compared with smaller-scale experiments and with theoretical predictions to evaluate scaling criteria. The strong hysteresis of transitions found between the stratified and slug flow regimes depends on the loop seal geometry and U-tube oscillations.