Supercritical Water Choking Flow Experiments Through a Convergent-Divergent Test Section

Abstract

The heat transport system of Gen-IV supercritical water-cooled reactors (SCWRs) will operate at pressures close to 25 MPa and outlet temperatures of up to 625 °C. The design and safety analyses of this type of reactors still necessitate among others, experimental information and validation of critical (choked) flows models of water above the thermodynamic critical state. Up to now, choked flow data were collected at atmospheric discharge pressure conditions, without changing the discharge pressure to verify the occurrence of choking flow; in most of the cases, using fluids different from water. This paper presents experimental supercritical water choking flow data collected by using a convergent-divergent test section by changing the discharge pressure to verify the occurrence of choked flow. The critical mass flux is presented as a function of the temperature difference between a pseudo-critical temperature and the bulk fluid temperature. This representation allows us to assess similar experiments performed by using different test sections. Hence, a comparison of actual data with those previously obtained using 1.0 mm and 1.4 mm diameter sharp-edged orifices, shows peculiar differences. The actual experiments were limited by very low values of choking mass flow rates. Furthermore, in some cases, it was observed the presence of an increase in the discharge pressure that seems to indicate the existence of shock-wave structures. We are also able to estimate a pseudo-critical temperature difference below which choking flow systematically occurs.