Effect of subcooling and wall thickness on pool boiling from downward-facing curved surfaces in water

Technical Report · Fri Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/107000· OSTI ID:107000

El-Genk, M. S.; Glebov, A. G. ^[1]

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1. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Quenching experiments were performed to investigate the effects of water subcooling and wall thickness on pool boiling from a downward-facing curved surface. Experiments used three copper sections of the same diameter (50.8 mm) and surface radius (148 mm), but different thickness (12.8, 20 and 30 mm). Local and average pool boiling curves were obtained at saturation and 5 K, 10 K, and 14 K subcooling. Water subcooling increased the maximum heat flux, but decreased the corresponding wall superheat. The minimum film boiling heat flux and the corresponding wall superheat, however, increased with increased subcooling. The maximum and minimum film boiling heat fluxes were independent of wall thickness above 20 mm and Biot Number > 0.8, indicating that boiling curves for the 20 and 30 thick sections were representative of quasi steady-state, but not those for the 12.8 mm thick section. When compared with that for a flat surface section of the same thickness, the data for the 12.8 mm thick section showed significant increases in both the maximum heat flux (from 0.21 to 0.41 MW/m{sup 2}) and the minimum film boiling heat flux (from 2 to 13 kW/m{sup 2}) and about 11.5 K and 60 K increase in the corresponding wall superheats, respectively.

• Research Organization: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States). Div. of Systems Technology; American Nuclear Society, La Grange Park, IL (United States); American Inst. of Chemical Engineers, New York, NY (United States); American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York, NY (United States); Canadian Nuclear Society, Toronto, ON (Canada); Japan Society of Multiphase Flow, Kyoto (Japan)
• OSTI ID: 107000
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CP--0142-Vol.1; CONF-950904--Vol.1; ON: TI95017077
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
42 ENGINEERING
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HEAT FLUX
HYDRAULICS
POOL BOILING
REACTOR CORE DISRUPTION
REACTOR SAFETY
REACTOR VESSELS
SUBCOOLING
THICKNESS