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Title: CRITICAL HEAT FLUX AND FLOW PATTERN CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH PRESSURE BOILING WATER IN FORCED CONVECTION

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4757612· OSTI ID:4757612

High-speed motion pictures of boiling water flow patterns in conditions of forced flow at 1000 psia pressure in a vertical heated rectangular channel were taken at mass velocities from 50 to 400 lbs/sec-ft/sup 2/, fluid states from 170 Btu/lb buik enthalpy of subcooling to 0.68 bulk steam quality, and heat tluxes up to and including the critical heat flux level. An objective of the work was to make the results available for continued experimental and theoretical investigation of the critical heat flux phenomenon in forced-flow bulk-boiling systems. The results are intended to be applicable to design and development of nuclear power reactors employing high-pressure boiling water as a working fluid. Motion pictures show substantial, but not indisputable, evidence that the general arrangement of the flow, in conditions of bulk boiling, at heat fluxes near and including the critical heat flux level is characteristically a wavy turbulent liquid film, in which there is vapor formation, flowing along the channel walls with the balance of the liquid being carried as either dispersed droplets or as an emulsion with the vapor in an adjacent more rapidly and steadily moving core. (auth)

Research Organization:
General Electric Co. Atomic Power Equipment Dept., San Jose, Calif.
DOE Contract Number:
AT(04-3)-189
NSA Number:
NSA-17-014449
OSTI ID:
4757612
Report Number(s):
GEAP-3766
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-63
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English