Experimental Study of Quench Temperature During Reflood Phase

Reflood process plays an important role in protecting fuel rods from damage and mitigating consequence during a hypothetical loss of coolant accident (LOCA). Study of quench temperature which is a symbol of quenching process is important for deep understanding of quench mechanism and development of quench models. However, there is no consensus on effects of different parameters such as inlet mass flux on quench temperature. More experimental studies on quench temperature are still needed. Based on an experimental study in an annular channel, the influences of inlet mass flux (20∼300kg/m2•s) and power (0∼1.5kW/m) on quench temperature have been investigated. It is shown that the effect of inlet mass flux on quench temperature is related to power. Quench temperature increases with increasing inlet mass flux when power is low enough but decreases with increasing mass flux when power is high.