Abstract
The main objective of the present study is to perform an experimental evaluation of five existing correlations for the subchannel pressure drop analysis of a wire-wrapped fuel assembly. For this purpose, a series of water experiments have been performed using a helical wire-wrapped 19-pin fuel assembly for various test parameters. For different test sections with different pitch to rod diameter ratios (P/D) and wire lead length to rod diameter ratios (H/D) have been fabricated. A series of pressure drop measurements were made to obtain friction factors for these four test sections. The new data along with existing data are used to evaluate existing correlations. Both the original and the simplified Cheng and Todreas correlations give the best agreement with experimental data for all flow regions.
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Abbreviations
- A :
-
Axial average flow area (mm2)
- D :
-
Rod diameter (mm)
- D w :
-
Wire spacer diameter (mm)
- D e :
-
Hydraulic equivalent diameter (mm)
- f :
-
Friction factor
- H :
-
Wire lead length (mm)
- L :
-
Axial length (mm)
- P :
-
Pressure (Pa)
- P :
-
Rod pitch (mm)
- P w :
-
Wetted perimeter (mm)
- Re:
-
Reynolds number
- V :
-
Flow velocity (m/s)
- X :
-
Flow split parameter
- ϱ:
-
Density (m3/kg)
- μ:
-
Dynamic viscosity (Ns/m2)
- ϕ:
-
Intermittency factor
- i :
-
Subchannel type index
References
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Chun, MH., Seo, KW., Choi, SK. et al. An experimental study of pressure drop correlations for wire-wrapped fuel assemblies. KSME International Journal 15, 403–409 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03185224
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03185224