Experimental Investigation on Temperature Characteristics of Direct Contact Condensation in a Natural Circulation System

Direct contact condensation (DCC) is a common physical phenomenon appearing in the nuclear power plants and other industrial applications. The current research on DCC focuses on steam-water counterflow or jet flow under forced flow conditions. For some natural-circulation passive safety systems in floating nuclear power plants, the heated section is connected with the heat sink by the horizontal pipes. The heat sink is usually the ocean. In such natural circulation systems (NCSs), the steam produced in the heated section will inevitably contact the subcooled water in the ocean and result in DCC event. In this paper, the fundamental characteristics of two-phase flow were described in detail. In addition, the influences of the subcooled water temperature on the flow rate, outlet temperature, steam bubble behaviors, and pressure surge were emphatically discussed. The experimental results revealed that the subcooled water in the water tank could reversely flow into the pipe, which was able to cause condensation induced water hammer (CIWH) event and flow oscillation. Further research showed that the subcooled water was evidently prevented from reversely flowing into the pipe with the increase in the subcooled water temperature. The position where the DCC event occurs transferred from the pipe to the water tank, and the pressure peak obviously reduced, even disappear when the subcooled water temperature is larger than 61 °C.