Experimental study of an adiabatic two-phase flow in a simulated PWR spent fuel bundle

Guillaume Brillant (1) , Jimmy Martin (2) , Benjamin Fourré (3)

1 IRSN/PSN-RES/SEREX/LE2M - Laboratoire d'Expérimentation en Mécanique et Matériaux
2 IRSN/PSN-RES/SEMIA/LSMA - Laboratoire de statistique et des modélisations avancées
3 IRSN/PSN-RES - Pôle Sûreté Nucléaire - Recherche en sûreté

Within the framework of the post-Fukushima actions, an experimental project named DENOPI has been launched with the aim to study the behavior of spent fuel pools under loss of cooling and loss of coolant conditions. Within this project, the MEDEA facility is intended to study the thermalhydraulics of a fully covered or uncovered spent fuel bundle. It consists in a hydraulic loop connected to an experimental test section in which a simulated one meter high PWR spent fuel bundle is located. The MEDEA-overflow experiments, presented in this study, consist in adiabatic air/water flows in a fully covered unheated bundle. Axial pressure and void fraction distributions were measured using pressure transducers. Overall, the tests exhibited two different flow regimes. Indeed, at low gas superficial velocities, a bubbly flow set up within the bundle whereas a transition to slug flow was obtained at larger ones.

Mots clés: DENOPI

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Guillaume Brillant, Jimmy Martin, Benjamin Fourré. Experimental study of an adiabatic two-phase flow in a simulated PWR spent fuel bundle. 18th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics - NURETH, ANS - American Nuclear Society, Aug 2019, Portland, United States. pp.Pages 2577 - 2586. ⟨irsn-04074255⟩