Convective flow measurements in a heated cavity using digital imaging velocimetry

Conference · Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1990 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA)

OSTI ID:5873550

Chavez, H L; Hassan, Y ^[1]

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1. Texas A M, College Station (USA)

During an accident, nuclear systems require devices that maintain long-term cooling of the nuclear fuel. This prevents the disruption of the fuel elements and other vital parts of the reactor that may result in the release of radioactivity. During this exponential decay, the nature of the cooling systems must be examined. This experimental study is primarily the examination of the natural convection flow between rectangular heating elements. Various flow patterns were studied. Convective flow in a liquid-filled heated cavity is investigated using a novel approach, digital imaging pulsed laser velocimetry. This method has several advantages over past methods such as hot wire anemometry and laser Doppler velocimetry. Digital imaging pulsed laser velocimetry is not only a method that supplied qualitative features but also quantitative information. The image is digitized and is manipulated to provide significant data such as centroids, gray levels, and other areas of interest in order to compute the velocity profiles. Each frame holds the equivalent of >1 Mbyte of information. The frame analysis is done with a PC/AT-compatible computer and an image processing unit in the laboratory, and the actual calculation of the flow trajectories is carried out on the VAX 8650 computing system.

• OSTI ID: 5873550
• Report Number(s): CONF-901101-; CODEN: TANSA
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA), Vol. 62; Conference: American Nuclear Society (ANS) winter meeting, Washington, DC (USA), 11-15 Nov 1990; ISSN 0003-018X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
FUEL ASSEMBLIES
NATURAL CONVECTION
FLOW VISUALIZATION
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
REACTOR SAFETY
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDRAULICS
VELOCIMETERS
IMAGE PROCESSING
AFTER-HEAT REMOVAL
DECAY
DIGITAL SYSTEMS
REACTOR SAFETY EXPERIMENTS
RECTANGULAR CONFIGURATION
ACCIDENTS
CONFIGURATION
CONVECTION
ENERGY TRANSFER
FLUID MECHANICS
MASS TRANSFER
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MECHANICS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
POWER PLANTS
PROCESSING
REMOVAL
SAFETY
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
220900* - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Reactor Safety
220100 - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Theory & Calculation