Measurement of Boiling Entrainment Rate from a Liquid

Film Flowing Downwards on a Vertical Heated Surface

1Raka Firman B. P., 1Tomio Okawa, 2Yuki Narushima, 2Hajime Furuichi, 2Kenichi Katono
1The University of Electro-Communications Tokyo, 2Hitachi, Ltd

INTRODUCTION Table 1 shows the experimental conditions in this experiment. As a first step in this research,
the experiment was carried out under zero air flow rate condition. Therefore, the effect of
Figure 1 shows the droplet entrainment phenomenon that occurs in annular two-phase forced convection of the air has not yet been investigated. The separator position used in this
flow. When we investigate the annular flow between the fuel rods in the fuel assembly of a experiment was the critical position which was determined by experiments.
boiling water reactor, there is a phenomenon called droplet entrainment. Droplet
entrainment occurs when liquid in the form of droplets is entrained in a flowing gas. There Table 1 Experimental conditions
are two models of droplet entrainment. Droplet entrainment by gas shear force and droplet
Parameters Value
entrainment by nucleate boiling at high heat flux, which is called boiling entrainment.
Liquid film flow rate 0.85 [L/min]
Droplet entrainment phenomenon leads to the occurrence of liquid film dryout and fuel
burnout in nuclear power reactors. Therefore, knowledge of droplet entrainment is important Gas flow rate *0
to ensure safe operation in nuclear power reactors. However, the present knowledge is still Heat flux 400 – 1300 [kW/m2]
insufficient to predict the droplet entrainment rate accurately. Inlet liquid temperature 98 [oC]
Separator position **Critical position

RESULTS & DISCUSSION

The critical position is the best position of the separator, as close as possible to the liquid
film but still avoiding the capture of the liquid film. In this experiment, the critical position
was 5 mm from the heating surface.

x = 5 mm x = 4 mm

Droplet area
Disturbance
wave area
Film area

OBJECTIVES Fig. 5 Observation results for critical separator position

In order to improve the accuracy of the prediction of boiling entrainment rate to prevent the
occurrence of dryout in nuclear power reactors, the final objective of this research is to Fig. 4 Critical separator position
develop a droplet entrainment rate correlation that takes into account the effect of forced
convection of the air and nucleate boiling to predict the amount of droplet entrainment Boiling entrainment rate tended to increase with an increase in heat flux. An increase in heat
more accurately. However, as first step in this research, the objective of this present flux leads to an increase of the occurrence of the nucleate boiling on the heating surface. The
research is to study the droplet entrainment rate due to nucleate boiling. measured boiling entrainment rate tends to be consistent with the Ueda et al.’s model.
However, the disparity was still noticeable, particularly at the relatively high heat flux
conditions. The difference in the heating length was considered as the cause of this
EXPERIMENTAL METHOD & CONDITIONS discrepancy. The amount of bubble nucleation and thus, the amount of boiling entrainment
Figure 2 shows the schematic diagram of test section in the experimental apparatus. Water rate was higher when the heating length was longer.
was used as the test liquid and all the experiments were performed under the atmospheric
pressure. Figure 3 shows the schematic diagram of droplet collector section used to collect
and measure the droplet entrainment rate. The droplet collector section was located at the
exit end of the test section, and the horizontal position from the heating surface can be
adjusted to avoid capturing liquid film. After the droplets were collected by the collection
part, they flowed through the pipe to the measurement section. Backer glass, digital weight
scale, and a stopwatch was used for the measurement of the droplet entrainment rate.

Fig. 6 Boiling entrainment rate of Ueda’s model & experiment

q = 400 kW/m2
Jet-type boiling
entrainment mechanism

q = 800 kW/m2
Filament-type boiling
entrainment mechanism

CONCLUSIONS
• The rate of boiling entrainment rate in a liquid film is proportional to the heating length.
The boiling entrainment rate is lower in the shorter heating length.
• For the next research plan, we will conduct experiments considering the effect of forced
convection of the air and heating length on boiling entrainment rate and developed a
correlation.
REFERENCES
[1] P. B. Whalley, Boiling, Condensation, and Gas-Liquid Flow, Oxford Science, Oxford, p. 155(1987).
[2] T. Ueda, M. Inoue, S. Nagatome, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer. 24(7), pp. 1257-1266 (1981).
RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2019

www.PosterPresentations.com