Two-Phase Flow Stability Tests in RD-14

Abstract

Current CANDU reactors are designed to operate with up to 4% steam quality at the outlet headers of the primary heat transport system. When operated with quality at the reactor outlet, the CANDU primary heat transport system may exhibit flow and pressure oscillations. To mitigate these potential oscillations, interconnect pipework has been installed between the outlet headers of current CANDU 600 reactors. A header interconnect has also been incorporated into the Darlington NGS reactor design. Experiments have been carried out in the RD-14 thermalhydraulic test facility at WNRE, using a header interconnect geometry similar to either the CANDU 600 or the Darlington NGS design. This paper describes the RD-14 experimental procedure and discusses the experimental results in detail. CATHENA simulations of selected header interconnect experiments were carried out. The onset, frequency and amplitude of any observed oscillations were accurately predicted using the CATHENA code. The simulations and the CATHENA code will be described in detail.