1st Edition

Coolant Flow Instabilities in Power Equipment

    388 Pages 206 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    388 Pages 206 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Thermal-hydraulic instability can potentially impair thermal reliability of reactor cores or other power equipment components. Thus it is important to address stability issues in power equipment associated with thermal and nuclear installations, particularly in thermal nuclear power plants, chemical and petroleum industries, space technology, and radio, electronic, and computer cooling systems. Coolant Flow Instabilities in Power Equipment synthesizes results from instability investigations around the world, presenting an analysis and generalization of the published technical literature.

    The authors include individual examples on flow stability in various types of equipment, including boilers, reactors, steam generators, condensers, heat exchangers, turbines, pumps, deaerators, bubblers, and pipelines. They also present information that has not been widely available until recently, such as thermal-acoustic instability, flow instability with supercritical parameters, and single-phase coolant flow static instability. The material described in this book is derived from vast amounts of experimental data from thermal-physical test facilities and full-scale installations. It is presented in a manner accessible to readers without advanced mathematical backgrounds.

    Particular attention has been paid to oscillatory (low-frequency and thermal-acoustic) and static thermal-hydraulic coolant flow instability. In addition, the physical mechanism of instability has been considered in detail. This book provides knowledge of the various types of flow instability, the equipment where this instability can manifest, and the ensuing consequences, as well as makes recommendations concerning possible removal or mitigation of these consequences. The authors provide this information as a useful reference for readers to facilitate the enhanced safety of modern power equipment through qualitative evaluation of design and flow parameters and subsequent selection of the optimal means for increasing flow stability.

    Two-Phase Flow Oscillatory Thermal-Hydraulic Instability
    Classification of Types of Thermal-Hydraulic Instability and Typical Thermal and Hydrodynamic Boundary Conditions
    Two-Phase Flow Instability at Low Exit Qualities
    Two-Phase Flow Oscillatory Instability at High Exit Qualities (Density-Wave Instability)
    Simplifying Assumptions Underlying Mathematical Model and Their Effect on Accuracy of Thermal-Hydraulic Stability Boundary Prediction

    Oscillatory Stability Boundary in Hydrodynamic Interaction of Parallel Channels and Requirements to Simulate Unstable Processes on Test Facilities
    Qualitative Effect of Hydrodynamic Interaction of Parallel Channels on Oscillatory Stability Boundary
    Simulation of Thermal-Hydraulic Instability in Complex Systems

    Simplified Correlations for Determining the Two-Phase Flow Thermal-Hydraulic Oscillatory Stability Boundary
    Introduction

    The CKTI Method
    The Saha-Zuber Method
    The Method of the Institute for Physics and Energetics (IPE)
    Determination of Oscillatory Stability Boundary at Supercritical Pressures

    Some Notes on the Oscillatory Flow Stability Boundary
    Experimental Determination of the Stability Boundary
    Experimental Determination of Thermal-Hydraulic Stability Boundaries of a Flow Using Operating Parameter Noise
    The First Approximation Stability Investigation
    Stability Investigations Based on Direct Numerical Solution of the Unsteady System of Nonlinear Equations


    Static Instability
    Basic Definitions
    Ambiguity of Hydraulic Curve due to Appearance of a Boiling Section at the Heated Channel Exit
    Hydraulic Characteristic Ambiguity in the Presence of a Superheating Section
    Hydraulic Characteristic Ambiguity in Cases of Coolant Downflow and Upflow–Downflow
    Pressure Drop Oscillations
    Some Other Mechanisms Inducing Static Instability

    Thermal-Acoustic Oscillations in Heated Channels
    Thermal-Acoustic Oscillations at Subcritical Pressures
    TAOs at Supercritical Pressures

    Instability of Condensing Flows
    Introduction

    Instability of Condenser Tube and Hotwell System
    Interchannel Instability in System of Parallel-Connected Condensing Tubes
    Water Hammers in Horizontal and Almost Horizontal Steam and Subcooled Water Tubes
    Instability of Bubbling Condensers

    Some Cases of Flow Instability in Pipelines
    Self-Oscillations in Inlet Line-Pump System
    Instability of Condensate Line-Deaerator System
    Vibration of Pipelines with Two-Phase Adiabatic Flows
    Two-Phase Flow Instabilities and Bubbling

    References

    Biography

    Professor Vladimir B. Khabensky is the leading scholar in the field of heat transfer and hydrodynamics of the single- and double-phase flows in thermal and nuclear power engineering. He has been celebrated for his contribution to mathematical modeling of nonstationary thermo-hydraulic processes in NPP. More recently, he has contributed greatly to understanding of physicochemical and thermo-hydraulic processes in the high-temperature molten corium in the context of the problem of NPP safety during a severe accident involving the core meltdown. He has authored over 160 research manuscripts and inventions.

    Professor Vladimir A. Gerliga is renowned for his contribution to the field of nuclear power plant safety, hydraulic gas dynamics, pumps, turbines, and power installations of space vehicles. His research focused on physical and mathematical models of thermo-acoustic fluctuations in the channel core of nuclear power plants and designing methods for instability prediction in the main circuit on natural circulation by the analysis of noise. He has authored 5 books and over 150 research manuscripts.