Investigation on the characteristic of CHF in various flow pattern regimes based on look-up table data

The critical heat flux (CHF) is one of the important phenomena limiting the maximum rate of heat transfer and hence power rating of nuclear reactors. The thermal hydraulic phenomena like pressure drop, heat transfer, stability, etc. depends upon the flow pattern in the system. The CHF phenomenon is also closely related to the two-phase flow patterns. It is important to investigate the dependence of CHF on the flow pattern regimes to understand the underlying mechanisms. The present investigation reveals that CHF generally increases with mass flux in the churn/slug region. However, in the annular region the CHF decreases with increase in mass flux. Considering the dependency of the CHF trend on the flow pattern regime, it will be useful to develop CHF models, which are specific to the flow pattern regime. The data of CHF look-up table has been considered in this investigation since this approach is one of the most reliable methods for the prediction of CHF and is being used in several best-estimate thermal-hydraulic system codes, such as RELAP5, CATHARE and CATHENA. The pressure, mass flux and quality have been considered as important thermal hydraulic parameters to characterize the flow pattern during CHF under various operating condition. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.