The Experimental Determination of Circumferential Temperature Distributions Developed in Pressure Tubes During Slow Coolant Boildown

Abstract

A series of four experiments has been performed to measure the circumferential temperature distribution and deformation of pressure tubes under slow coolant boildown conditions. During the experiments, the stratified steam flow resulted in a local hot spot at the top of the pressure tube. Presented are the experimental data from these tests, as well as important inferred channel thermalhydraulic information. response of the pressure tube under different stratified flow conditions is being performed at WNRE. In this paper, a detailed description of the first four experiments performed under slow coolant boildown conditions is presented. The measured pressure tube circumferential temperature distribution is described. The liquid level transient, which is valuable in verifying the thermalhydraulic models, is inferred from the measured data in each test.