A New Enthalpy Mixing Measurement Technique for Fuel Element Design

Abstract

A new thermal tracing technique for the direct measurement of enthalpy mixing between coupled subchannels is presented. This technique is particularly suited for the performance evaluation of mixing promoters. The method is simple and versatile, being capable of implementation on compact and heterogeneos bundles like CANDO fuel element, using water high flows. Different mixing promoters like buttons and mixing vane were measured on a triangular array bundle with a relation of pitch to diameter of 1.26 at 8.5x104 Reynolds number.