Forced-Convective Post-CHF Heat Transfer and Quenching

Abstract

Mechanisms in the postcritical heat flux region that provide understanding and qualitative prediction capability for several current force-convective heat-transfer problems are discussed. In the area of nuclear reactor safety, the mechanisms are important in the prediction of fuel rod cooldown and quenches for the reflood phase, blowdown phase, and possibly some operational transients with dryout. Results using the mechanisms to investigate forced-convective quenching are presented. Data reduction of quenching experiments is discussed, and the way in which the quenching transient may affect the results of different types of quenching experiments is investigated. This investigation provides an explanation of how minimum wall superheats greater than the homogeneous nucleation temperature result, as well as how these may be either hydrodynamically or thermodynamically controlled.