Effects of entrained air on the performance of nuclear reactor cooling pumps

Abstract

An important aspect of nuclear energy is safety. One of the most severe accidents in nuclear power generation is the loss of coolant, where the recirculating coolant of the pressurized water reactor may flash into steam. Under such two-phase flow conditions, the reactor cooling pumps become unable to generate the same head as that of the single-phase flow case. In this work, high-speed video (HSV) observations were conducted on a nuclear reactor cooling pump. The HSV identified the bubbles motion into the impeller passages and assisted in the development of a mathematical model based on the control volume method for rotating machines.