Effect of surface oxidation on the onset of nucleate boiling in a materials test reactor coolant channel

Forrest, Eric C.; Don, Sarah M.; Hu, Lin -Wen; Buongiorno, Jacopo; McKrell, Thomas J.

doi:10.1115/1.4031503

Title: Effect of surface oxidation on the onset of nucleate boiling in a materials test reactor coolant channel

Full Record
Other Related Research

Abstract

The onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) serves as the thermal-hydraulic operating limit for many research and test reactors. However, boiling incipience under forced convection has not been well-characterized in narrow channel geometries or for oxidized surface conditions. This study presents experimental data for the ONB in vertical upflow of deionized (DI) water in a simulated materials test reactor (MTR) coolant channel. The channel gap thickness and aspect ratio were 1.96 mm and 29:1, respectively. Boiling surface conditions were carefully controlled and characterized, with both heavily oxidized and native oxide surfaces tested. Measurements were performed for mass fluxes ranging from 750 to 3000 kg/m² s and for subcoolings ranging from 10 to 45°C. ONB was identified using a combination of high-speed visual observation, surface temperature measurements, and channel pressure drop measurements. Surface temperature measurements were found to be most reliable in identifying the ONB. For the nominal (native oxide) surface, results indicate that the correlation of Bergles and Rohsenow, when paired with the appropriate single-phase heat transfer correlation, adequately predicts the ONB heat flux. Furthermore, incipience on the oxidized surface occurred at a higher heat flux and superheat than on the plain surface.

Authors:

Forrest, Eric C. ^[1]; Don, Sarah M. ^[2]; Hu, Lin -Wen ^[2]; Buongiorno, Jacopo ^[2]; McKrell, Thomas J. ^[2]

Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Publication Date:: Mon Feb 29 00:00:00 EST 2016

Research Org.:: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

OSTI Identifier:: 1259849

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1333853

Report Number(s):: SAND-2015-6704J; SAND-2015-2282J
Journal ID: ISSN 2332-8983; 598838

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 2; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 2332-8983

Publisher:: ASME

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS; research reactor; thermal hydraulics; boiling incipience; flow boiling; narrow channel; pressure; temperature; bubbles; boiling; forced convection; temperature measurement; water; heat flux; flow (dynamics); flux (metallurgy)

Citation Formats


                    Forrest, Eric C., Don, Sarah M., Hu, Lin -Wen, Buongiorno, Jacopo, and McKrell, Thomas J. Effect of surface oxidation on the onset of nucleate boiling in a materials test reactor coolant channel.  United States: N. p., 2016. 
Web.  doi:10.1115/1.4031503.

Copy to clipboard


                    Forrest, Eric C., Don, Sarah M., Hu, Lin -Wen, Buongiorno, Jacopo, & McKrell, Thomas J. Effect of surface oxidation on the onset of nucleate boiling in a materials test reactor coolant channel.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4031503

Copy to clipboard


                    Forrest, Eric C., Don, Sarah M., Hu, Lin -Wen, Buongiorno, Jacopo, and McKrell, Thomas J. Mon .  
"Effect of surface oxidation on the onset of nucleate boiling in a materials test reactor coolant channel".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4031503.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1259849.

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_1259849,

  title        = {Effect of surface oxidation on the onset of nucleate boiling in a materials test reactor coolant channel},

  author       = {Forrest, Eric C. and Don, Sarah M. and Hu, Lin -Wen and Buongiorno, Jacopo and McKrell, Thomas J.},

  abstractNote = {The onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) serves as the thermal-hydraulic operating limit for many research and test reactors. However, boiling incipience under forced convection has not been well-characterized in narrow channel geometries or for oxidized surface conditions. This study presents experimental data for the ONB in vertical upflow of deionized (DI) water in a simulated materials test reactor (MTR) coolant channel. The channel gap thickness and aspect ratio were 1.96 mm and 29:1, respectively. Boiling surface conditions were carefully controlled and characterized, with both heavily oxidized and native oxide surfaces tested. Measurements were performed for mass fluxes ranging from 750 to 3000 kg/m2 s and for subcoolings ranging from 10 to 45°C. ONB was identified using a combination of high-speed visual observation, surface temperature measurements, and channel pressure drop measurements. Surface temperature measurements were found to be most reliable in identifying the ONB. For the nominal (native oxide) surface, results indicate that the correlation of Bergles and Rohsenow, when paired with the appropriate single-phase heat transfer correlation, adequately predicts the ONB heat flux. Furthermore, incipience on the oxidized surface occurred at a higher heat flux and superheat than on the plain surface.},

  doi          = {10.1115/1.4031503},

  journal      = {Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science},

  number       = 2,

  volume       = 2,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Mon Feb 29 00:00:00 EST 2016},

  month        = {Mon Feb 29 00:00:00 EST 2016}

}

Copy to clipboard

Journal Article:

Free Publicly Available Full Text

Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Publisher's Version of Record

https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4031503

Other availability

Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections:

Experimental investigation of the onset of nucleate boiling in ammonia flowing inside a large-diameter smooth aluminum tube

Technical Report Pandolfini, P P ; Keirsey, J L ; Rice, J L

A series of experiments has been completed which investigates the occurrence of the Onset of Nucleate Boiling (ONB) in ammonia flowing inside a large-diameter aluminum tube. The tube simulates one pass of a multipass evaporator which is proposed by APL for use in a low-cost Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) plant-ship heat exchanger. The 25 tests covered mass flows of 0.7 to 1.5 1bm/sec, heat fluxes of 1100 to 3600 Btu/hr-ft/sup 2/ and levels of subcooling of the ammonia of 4 to 20/sup 0/F. Observations of the onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) were judged to occur at several flow conditionsmore »« less
Subcooled nucleate boiling heat transfer from a large diameter tube

Book Brown, M J ; Fung, K K ; Byrne, T P

Nucleate boiling heat transfer from the outside of large-diameter tubes has not been well studied. There are many large-diameter horizontal tubes in the core of a CANDU{reg_sign} nuclear reactor, and it is important to quantify the different modes of heat transfer from the tubes (known as calandria tubes) to the heavy water moderator. This paper describes a series of experiments performed to study nucleate boiling heat transfer from the outside surface of a horizontal calandria tube to subcooled and pressurized light water. When the circulating pump was on, it caused an upflow of water in the vicinity of the tube,more »« less
FILM-30: A Heat Transfer Properties Code for Water Coolant

Technical Report MARSHALL, THERON D

A FORTRAN computer code has been written to calculate the heat transfer properties at the wetted perimeter of a coolant channel when provided the bulk water conditions. This computer code is titled FILM-30 and the code calculates its heat transfer properties by using the following correlations: (1) Sieder-Tate: forced convection, (2) Bergles-Rohsenow: onset to nucleate boiling, (3) Bergles-Rohsenow: partially developed nucleate boiling, (4) Araki: fully developed nucleate boiling, (5) Tong-75: critical heat flux (CHF), and (6) Marshall-98: transition boiling. FILM-30 produces output files that provide the heat flux and heat transfer coefficient at the wetted perimeter as a function ofmore »« less
https://doi.org/10.2172/780297

Full Text Available
Onset of nucleate boiling in research reactors with thin rectangular channels under low-velocity upward-flow conditions

Journal Article Belhadj, M ; Aldemir, T ; Christensen, R N - Nucl. Technol.; (United States)

Currently used correlations to predict the onset of nucleate boiling heat flux q/sup ''//sub ONB/ in research reactor channels determine q/sup ''//sub ONB/ in terms of local channel pressure and wall superheat. Recent experiments show that these correlations may over- or underestimate q/sup ''//sub ONB/ by as much as a factor of 5 in thin rectangular channels for low-velocity upward flows. Such flow conditions are encountered in the natural convection cooling of research reactors with plate-type fuels. A set of experiments are performed to quantify the effect of channel flow velocity and gap size (in the ranges of 2 tomore »« less
Predicting onset of nucleate boiling in plate-type cores under upward laminar flow conditions

Conference Belhadj, M ; Aldemir, T ; Cubillos-Moreno, E - Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA)

A large number of nonpower reactors in the world use plate-type elements that contain aluminum-clad UAl, UAl{sub x}-Al, or U{sub 3}Si{sub 2}-Al fuel and which have thin, rectangular coolant channels with channel gap (d) in the 2 {le} d {le} 5 mm range. The heat flux that leads to onset of nucleate boiling (q{sub ONB}{double prime}) in the coolant channels is often regarded as a thermal design constraint for plate-type cores, since excessive bubble formation may lead to flow instabilities with possible burnout. Recent experiments with 2 {le} d {le} 4 mm channels closely simulating actual plate-type core channel surfacemore »« less

Similar Records