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Title: Columbia University flow instability experimental program: Volume 7. Single tube tests, critical heat flux test program

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10168361· OSTI ID:10168361

This report deals with critical heat flux (CHF) measurements in vertical down flow of water at low pressures in a round Inconel tube, 96 inches long and 0.62 inch inside diameter. A total of 28 CHF points were obtained. These data were found to correlate linearly with the single variable q, defined as the heat flux required to raise the enthalpy from the inlet value to the saturation value. These results were compared to the published results of Swedish investigators for vertical upflow of water at low pressures in round tubes of similar diameters and various lengths. The parameter q depends on the inlet enthalpy and is a nonlocal variable, thus this correlation is nonlocal unless the coefficients depend upon tube length in a particular prescribed manner. For the low pressure Swedish data, the coefficients are practically independent of length and hence the correlation is nonlocal. In the present investigation only one length was employed, so it is not possible to determine whether the correlation for these data is local or nonlocal, although there is reason to believe that it is local. The same correlation was applied to a large data base (thousands of CHF points) compiled from the published data of a number of groups and found to apply, with reasonable accuracy over a wide range of conditions, yielding sometimes local and sometimes nonlocal correlations. The basic philosophy of data analysis here was not to generate a single correlation which would reproduce all data, but to search for correlations which apply adequately over some range and which might have some mechanistic significance. The tentative conclusion is that at least two mechanisms appear operative, leading to two types of correlations, one local, the other nonlocal.

Research Organization:
Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC09-89SR18035
OSTI ID:
10168361
Report Number(s):
WSRC-TR-93-688; ON: DE94015498; IN: CU-HTRF-T8; TRN: 94:014702
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: Sep 1992
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English