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Original Article Research on ow characteristics in supercritical water natural circulation: Inuence of heating power distribution Dongliang Ma a, b, c, * , Tao Zhou a, b, c, ** , Xiang Feng a, b, c , Yanping Huang d a School of Nuclear Science and Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102026, China b Institute of Nuclear Thermal-hydraulic Safety and Standardization, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China c Beijing Key Laboratory of Passive Safety Technology for Nuclear Energy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China d Science and Technology on Reactor System DesignTechnology Laboratory, Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu 610041, China article info Article history: Received 20 March 2018 Received in revised form 11 June 2018 Accepted 11 July 2018 Available online 17 July 2018 Keywords: Supercritical water Power distribution Natural circulation Thermal resistance Passive residual heat removal system abstract There are many parameters that affect the natural circulation ow, such as height difference, heating power size, pipe diameter, system pressure and inlet temperature and so on. In general analysis the heating power is often regarded as a uniform distribution. The ANSYS-CFX numerical analysis software was used to analyze the ow heat transfer of supercritical water under different heating power distri- bution conditions. The distribution types of uniform, power increasing, power decreasing and sine function are investigated. Through the analysis, it can be concluded that different power distribution has a great inuence on the ow of natural circulation if the total power of heating is constant. It was found that the peak ow of supercritical water natural circulation is maximal when the distribution of heating power is monotonically decreasing, minimal when it is monotonically increasing, and moderate at uniform or the sine type of heating. The simulation results further reveal the supercritical water under different heat transfer conditions on its ow characteristics. It can provide certain theory reference and system design for passive residual heat removal system about supercritical water. © 2018 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 1. Introduction The supercritical water reactor (SCWR) is the only water cooled reactor in the fourth-generation advanced reactor. It is character- ized by high thermal efciency and good economy. Usually in the event of an accident, the supercritical water reactor generates a huge waste heat. How the waste heat removed from the core of the reactor is closely related to the safety and stability of the reactor. The natural circulation ow can continuously export the residual heat in the core, which is a safe and reliable heat removal method. There are many parameters that affect the natural circulation ow, such as height difference, heating power value, pipe diameter, pressure, inlet temperature, and so on. V. Chatoorgoon et al. [1] calculated the inuence of these major inuencing parameters on the boundary conditions of the stability of supercritical water's natural circulation ow. But the calculation assumption is that the heating power is a uniform distribution. In the previous study and analysis, the power distribution in the core is also assumed uni- form. But in the actual case, the heat release distribution in the core is usually not uniform. In the uneven heating core channel, the heat transfer characteristic has a large inuence on the ow character- istics in the channel. Zhang et al. [2] conducted experimental studies on the stability of natural circulation under different power density distributions. The axial power distribution of a nuclear reactor, is generally affected by Ref. [3] the heat ux level, fuel consumption level, transient xenon distribution, control rod elevation and insertion level and so on. In the design of nuclear power plant, the heat ux distribution of the reactor is controlled by the normal axial migration control method. Li et al. [4] carried out a systematic experimental study on the inhomogeneous heat transfer of supercritical water in an inclined smooth tube. The study shows that it is prone to produce a stratication phenomenon at large heat ux. Lei et al. [5] numerically studied the non-uniform heat transfer characteristics of supercritical water in an inclined riser. Lu xiaodong et al. [6] calculated the inuence of axial power distribution on the instability of supercritical water ow in parallel channels. In his paper, the concept of single-phase pressure drop * Corresponding author. School of Nuclear Science and Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102026, China. ** Corresponding author. School of Nuclear Science and Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (D. Ma), [email protected] (T. Zhou). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Nuclear Engineering and Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/net https://doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2018.07.004 1738-5733/© 2018 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Nuclear Engineering and Technology 50 (2018) 1079e1087
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Page 1: Nuclear Engineering and Technologykoreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO201815540676436.pdf · Original Article Research on flow characteristics in supercritical water natural circulation:

Original Article

Research on flow characteristics in supercritical water naturalcirculation: Influence of heating power distribution

Dongliang Ma a, b, c, *, Tao Zhou a, b, c, **, Xiang Feng a, b, c, Yanping Huang d

a School of Nuclear Science and Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102026, Chinab Institute of Nuclear Thermal-hydraulic Safety and Standardization, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, Chinac Beijing Key Laboratory of Passive Safety Technology for Nuclear Energy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, Chinad Science and Technology on Reactor System Design Technology Laboratory, Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu 610041, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 20 March 2018Received in revised form11 June 2018Accepted 11 July 2018Available online 17 July 2018

Keywords:Supercritical waterPower distributionNatural circulationThermal resistancePassive residual heat removal system

a b s t r a c t

There are many parameters that affect the natural circulation flow, such as height difference, heatingpower size, pipe diameter, system pressure and inlet temperature and so on. In general analysis theheating power is often regarded as a uniform distribution. The ANSYS-CFX numerical analysis softwarewas used to analyze the flow heat transfer of supercritical water under different heating power distri-bution conditions. The distribution types of uniform, power increasing, power decreasing and sinefunction are investigated. Through the analysis, it can be concluded that different power distribution hasa great influence on the flow of natural circulation if the total power of heating is constant. It was foundthat the peak flow of supercritical water natural circulation is maximal when the distribution of heatingpower is monotonically decreasing, minimal when it is monotonically increasing, and moderate atuniform or the sine type of heating. The simulation results further reveal the supercritical water underdifferent heat transfer conditions on its flow characteristics. It can provide certain theory reference andsystem design for passive residual heat removal system about supercritical water.© 2018 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC. This is an open access article under the

CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction

The supercritical water reactor (SCWR) is the only water cooledreactor in the fourth-generation advanced reactor. It is character-ized by high thermal efficiency and good economy. Usually in theevent of an accident, the supercritical water reactor generates ahuge waste heat. How the waste heat removed from the core of thereactor is closely related to the safety and stability of the reactor.The natural circulation flow can continuously export the residualheat in the core, which is a safe and reliable heat removal method.There are many parameters that affect the natural circulation flow,such as height difference, heating power value, pipe diameter,pressure, inlet temperature, and so on. V. Chatoorgoon et al. [1]calculated the influence of these major influencing parameters onthe boundary conditions of the stability of supercritical water's

natural circulation flow. But the calculation assumption is that theheating power is a uniform distribution. In the previous study andanalysis, the power distribution in the core is also assumed uni-form. But in the actual case, the heat release distribution in the coreis usually not uniform. In the uneven heating core channel, the heattransfer characteristic has a large influence on the flow character-istics in the channel. Zhang et al. [2] conducted experimentalstudies on the stability of natural circulation under different powerdensity distributions. The axial power distribution of a nuclearreactor, is generally affected by Ref. [3] the heat flux level, fuelconsumption level, transient xenon distribution, control rodelevation and insertion level and so on. In the design of nuclearpower plant, the heat flux distribution of the reactor is controlledby the normal axial migration control method. Li et al. [4] carriedout a systematic experimental study on the inhomogeneous heattransfer of supercritical water in an inclined smooth tube. The studyshows that it is prone to produce a stratification phenomenon atlarge heat flux. Lei et al. [5] numerically studied the non-uniformheat transfer characteristics of supercritical water in an inclinedriser. Lu xiaodong et al. [6] calculated the influence of axial powerdistribution on the instability of supercritical water flow in parallelchannels. In his paper, the concept of single-phase pressure drop

* Corresponding author. School of Nuclear Science and Engineering, North ChinaElectric Power University, Beijing 102026, China.** Corresponding author. School of Nuclear Science and Engineering, North ChinaElectric Power University, Beijing 102206, China.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (D. Ma), [email protected](T. Zhou).

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Nuclear Engineering and Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate/net

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2018.07.0041738-5733/© 2018 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Nuclear Engineering and Technology 50 (2018) 1079e1087

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ratio is proposed to analyze the influence mechanism of axial po-wer distribution on the stability of supercritical water in parallelchannel systems. Jia et al. [7] proposed a new method for recon-structing the radial power distribution in the core by introducingthe component cross section deviation. This method can be easilyused to reconstruct the variation of power distribution caused byxenon gas fluctuation and moderator temperature field changes.Cao et al. [8] developed the fine power distribution calculationprogram for the core components of the sodium-cooled fast reactor.Sheng et al. [9] found that the occurrence of critical heat flux (CHF)in a natural circulation system has nonlinear chaotic characteristics.Rowinski et al. [10] carried out numerical studies on supercriticalwater flow under axial non-uniform heat flux. The research showsthat the wall temperature distribution is highly dependent on theheat flux distribution form. If the peak point of wall temperatureappears before the occurrence of heat transfer deterioration, it canreach a lower temperature distribution level compared with theuniform heat flux distribution form. Paul et al. [11,12] studied thenonlinear density wave instability under axial non-uniform heatingcondition. The results show that the linear stability of axial non-uniform heating is better than that of uniform heating. The singlehumped axial heat flux profiles are more linearly stable than dualhumped profiles. The flow stability of the system varies greatlyunder different heat flux distribution conditions. Rowinski et al. [13]simulated the surface temperature distribution of supercriticalwater under the condition of uneven heat flux in 2 � 2 rod chan-nels. The study shows that the distribution of heat flux has greatinfluence on the distribution of wall temperature. Aimed atstudying the influence of heat flow distribution on nucleate boilingpoint (ONB), the related experiment was carried out by Al-Yahiaet al. [14]. At the non-uniform heat flow heating surface, the powervalue of the ONB point is about 25% lower than that when thesurface is uniformly heated. Habib et al. [15] summarized therelated experimental study and the progress of CFD in two phase

flow when the radial and axial non-uniform heating were used topredict the CHF. Lucas D et al. [16] proposed a multiphase flowquality control strategy method for simulation analysis to facilitatethe safety of nuclear reactions. Liao Y et al. [17] simulated thephenomenon of flash evaporation at different pressures. Tang J et al.[18] proposed a new method for steady state and transientnonlinear radial conduction problems in nuclear fuel rods.HuangMet al. [19] proposed a new method that can be used to solve com-plex geometry and multidimensional heat transfer flow problems.In case of supercritical water, the related research on the influenceof heat flux distribution on the characteristics of flow is relativelyless. Therefore, in the present work a numerical simulation methodis used to analyze the distribution of several typical heat fluxes. Theflow characteristics under different heating power conditions areinvestigated. The results can provide a reference for the design of inpassive residual heat removal system for supercritical waterreactor.

2. Simulation setup

2.1. Computational domain and mesh

The natural circulation loop of the single-channel supercriticalwater is studied. The natural circulation loop consists of preheatingsegment, experimental entrance section, test section, experimentalexit section, cooling section and descent section. The main com-ponents of the simulation loop model are shown in Fig. 1.

In the process of simulation modeling, the test section is dividedinto 20 units of equal length. By setting the heating power valueseparately in each unit, the boundary condition setting can becarried out in different forms of power distribution in the wholetest segment. Compared with the uniform distribution heat flux,the heat flux of the test section is set to the situation of powerincreasing, power decreasing and power sine distribution

Fig. 1. Simulation model of supercritical water natural circulation loop.

D. Ma et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Technology 50 (2018) 1079e10871080

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respectively. When the average heating power is 320 kW, fourdifferent typical power distribution characteristic curves are shownin Fig. 1. The specific simulation size parameters of the naturalcirculation loop are also shown in Fig. 1.

2.2. Meshing method

The 3D structured grid division method is adopted in the wholenatural circulation loop. The whole natural circulation loopincluding the descending section is simulated. The O Block struc-tured mesh is selected for pipeline profile section. The section gridis shown in Fig. 2.

Due to the velocity of the fluid in the near wall area changesfaster, the node partition with a certain change rate is selected atthe pipe boundary. The specific node information and the relatedsize ratio information are shown in Table 1.

2.3. The physical properties of supercritical water

When the pressure is 25 MPa, the main parameters change ofsupercritical water as shown in Fig. 3.

2.4. Numerics and convergence criteria information

In the solver's control settings, the specific numerics andconvergence criteria are shown in Table 2.

2.5. Mathematical models

The equations used in simulation calculations are as follows:Mass equation:

vr

vtþ V$ðrUÞ ¼ 0 (1)

where r is density, (kg/m3); V is nabla operator; U is vector of ve-locity in the x, y and z directions Ux;y;z;

Momentum equation:

vðrUÞvt

þ V$ðrU5UÞ ¼ �Vpþ V$tþ SM (2)

where p is the pressure, (kg$m�1$s�2); SM is momentum source,ðkg$m�2$s�2Þ; t is the stress tensor, t is related to the strain rate,the relationship is as follows:

t ¼ m

�VU þ ðVUÞT � 2

3dV$U

�(3)

where m is molecular dynamic viscosity, ðkg$m�1s�1Þ; T is

Fig. 2. Mesh division of pipeline profile section.

Table 1Mesh size information.

Item Value Item Value

Pipe center area 10 The vertical outlet section 20Pipe edge area 15 Test heating section 400The first grid size near the wall 0.005 Horizontal preheating section 100Edge node change ratio 1.2 Horizontal cooling section 150The vertical inlet section 20 Vertical descent section 100Total mesh number 526726

Fig. 3. Properties of supercritical water (25 Mpa).

Table 2Solver control basic settings.

Basic Settings Value

Advection Scheme High Resolutionturbulence numerics First OrderMax Iterations 5000Timescale Control Auto TimescaleLength Scale Option ConservativeTimescale Factor 1Convergence Criteria Residual Type Root-Mean-Square (RMS)Convergence criteria residual target 1e-6

D. Ma et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Technology 50 (2018) 1079e1087 1081

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temperature, K; d is Kronecker Delta function.Energy equation:

vðrhÞvt

� vpvt

þ V$ðrUhÞ ¼ V$ðlVTÞ þ U$Vpþ t : VU þ SE (4)

where h is the specific static enthalpy, ðm2$s�2Þ; l is thermal con-ductivity, ðkg$m$s�3$K�1Þ; SE is energy source, ðkg$m�1$s�3Þ; Theterm t : VU is always positive and is called the viscous dissipation.

Turbulent flux closure for heat transfer‘s option is eddy diffu-sivity, and the Turbulent Prandtl Number is set as 0.9.

The SST k-u turbulence model is used.

v

vtðrkÞ þ v

vxiðrkuiÞ ¼

v

vxj

Gk

vkvxj

!þfGk � Yk þ Sk (5)

v

vtðruÞ þ v

vxj

�ruuj

� ¼ v

vxj

Gu

vu

vxj

!þ Gu � Yu þ Du þ Su (6)

In the equation, fGk represents the generation of turbulence ki-netic energy due to mean velocity gradients, the detailed calcula-

tions of fGk can be found in the CFX User Manual [20]. r is the fluiddensity (kg/m3), k is the turbulent kinetic energy (m2/s2), Gk is thekinetic energy of the turbulent flow (kgJ/m3 s), Gu is the u equation(kg/m s4), Gk and Gu is the effective diffusion terms of k and u

respectively (kg/m s), Yk and Yu is the dissipation of k and u due toturbulence (kg/m s4), Du is the cross-diffusion term (kg/m s4), Skand Su are user-defined source terms.

3. Analysis of calculation results

3.1. The mass flow rate under different power distributionconditions

When the system pressure is 25 MPa and the inlet temperatureis 200 �C and 230 �C respectively, under different heating powerdistribution conditions, the change of natural circulation mass flowrate is shown in Fig. 4.

It can be seen from Fig. 4 that, the natural circulation mass flowincreases with the increase of heating power, regardless of thedistribution of the heating power of the test section. Afterreaching a certain peak flow rate, the natural circulation flow thengradually becomes smaller. When the heating power distributionof the test section is monotonically decreasing, the peak flow of

natural circulation is the largest. When the heating power dis-tribution of test section is monotonically increasing, the peak flowof natural circulation is the minimum. It shows that the thermalresistance is relatively large in the later stages of the test section,when the heating power distribution is monotonically increasing.This is because at the entrance of the test section, the fluid isaffected by the difference of the cold and hot density, and its risespeed is relatively fast. In the outlet section, the process of risingvelocity is close to the end, but the heating power of the pipe isrelatively large. Therefore, it is easier to form the high tempera-ture quasi-vapor state layer near the pipe wall. The drag of thefluid affected by the resistance of the vapor layer is larger. So whenthe heating power distribution is increasing, in general the naturalcirculation flow is relatively low. When the heating power of thetest section is monotonically decreasing, the temperature of theentrance section in the pipe is relatively lower, it is in the state ofquasi-liquid. At this time, the entrance of the test section isaffected by the larger heating power, and the velocity of the fluidin the pipe rises faster. Moreover, there is no quasi-vapor statelayer near the wall in the pipe, so the flow heat resistance isrelatively small. At the outlet section, the flow velocity in the pipeis relatively high, and the heating power is relatively small, so theflow heat resistance is relatively small. Therefore, the flow heatresistance of natural circulation is relatively small when the po-wer distribution is monotonically decreasing, so at this time thenatural circulation mass flow rate is larger. When the heatingpower is the sine type distribution, the inlet and outlet of the testsection are low and the heating power is relatively high in themiddle part of the test section. In the middle part of the testsection, the flow medium in the pipe is in the transition phasefrom quasi-liquid to quasi-vapor. Therefore, the trend of overallflow rate is similar to that of the flow rate when the heating poweris uniform.

3.2. The wall temperature under different power distributionconditions

When the system pressure is 25 MPa, the inlet temperature is230 �C, and the average heating power is 360 kW. Under differentheating power distribution conditions, the wall temperature dis-tribution of the natural circulation test section is shown in Fig. 5.

It can be seen from Fig. 5 that when the heating power isuniform distribution, the wall temperature of the test section islower in the inlet part. The wall temperature reaches its peakvalue in the middle part of the test section, and then the wall

a b

Fig. 4. a) Mass flow rate under different heating power distribution conditions (Tin ¼ 200 �C), b) Mass flow rate under different heating power distribution conditions (Tin ¼ 230 �C).

D. Ma et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Technology 50 (2018) 1079e10871082

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temperature gradually decreases. When the heating power ismonotonically decreasing, the heating power value at theentrance of the test section is the highest. So at the entry stage,the wall temperature of the test section rises rapidly and reachesits peak value, and maintains a certain high temperature. As theheating power of the test section decreases gradually, the walltemperature decreases gradually after the middle part of the testsection. At the exit stage of the test section, the temperature ofthe wall surface has been reduced to a lower state. At this time,compared with the heating power is uniform distribution, thewall temperature of the outlet section is lower. When the heatingpower is monotonically increasing distribution, the wall tem-perature is always lower at the entrance stage of the test section.As the heating power increases gradually in the outlet of the testsection, the wall temperature suddenly rises rapidly. In thelocation near 1.1 m, the wall temperature reaches a peak valueand maintain. At this time the distance of the wall temperaturepeak is the longest in all the heating power distribution forms. Inthe outlet section, at a long distance the wall temperature is at ahigh temperature, so it is subjected to a great heat resistance.This is one of the main reasons for the low value of natural cir-culation mass flow rate. When the heating power is the sine typedistribution, the peak value of the wall temperature appears in

the middle part of the test section. Compared with the heatinguniform distribution condition, the peak value of the wall tem-perature is higher. The distance of the wall temperature peakstate is between the monotonic increment and the monotonicdecrement condition.

3.3. The bulk velocity under different power distribution conditions

When the system pressure is 25 MPa, inlet temperature is230 �C, the average heating power is 360 kW, under the conditionof different heating power distribution, the changes of the bulkvelocity in the test section of the natural circulation is shown inFig. 6.

As can be seen from Fig. 6, at the entrance stage of the test section,the velocity value is relatively lower, regardless of the distribution ofthe heating power. Due to the influence of the density differencedriving force of the cold and hot segment, the bulk velocity of the testsection began to rise gradually after heating a process. When the testsection heating power is monotonically decreasing distribution, thebulk fluid in the entrance segment is rapidly heated by the largerheating power. Therefore, in the driving force of the larger densitydifference of the cold and hot segment, the bulk fluid velocity firstappears to rise rapidly. When the position is at about 0.5 m, the bulkfluid velocity appears to rise obviously. When the distribution ofheating power in the test section is the sine distribution or theuniform distribution, the main velocity of the test is obviously risingat about the middle part of the test section. The position is about1.0 m. As further heating continues, when the distribution of heatingpower is in the form of sine type, the rise amplitude of the bulk fluidvelocity is higher than that of heating power is in uniform distri-bution. When the heating power of the test section is monotoneincreasing distribution, due to its heating power at the entrancesection is lower, so the density difference driving force of cold andhot segment is small. So the bulk fluid velocity appears to risesignificantly is later. When the position in the test section is about1.2 m, the bulk fluid velocity began to rise significantly. Due to thelarge heating power in the later stage of the test section, the bulkfluid is also greatly affected by a larger heat resistance. So comparedwith the other heating power distribution type, this type bulk fluidvelocity rise amplitude is smaller.

3.4. The physical parameters under different power distributionconditions

In order to study the change law of physical parameters underFig. 6. The bulk velocity changes under different heating power distributionconditions.

a b

Fig. 5. a) The wall temperature under different heating power distribution conditions. b) The bulk temperature changes under different heating power distribution conditions.

D. Ma et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Technology 50 (2018) 1079e1087 1083

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different power distribution conditions, in the position of the ver-tical section of 0.0 m, 0.4 m, 0.8 m,1.2 m, 1.6 m and 2.0 m, thecorresponding position of physical parameters, such as tempera-ture, velocity, density and dynamic viscosity are analysed.

It can be seen from Fig. 7 that the radial distribution of thetemperature at different vertical cross-sectional positions varieswith different power distributions. When the heating power isuniform distributed, the level of temperature rise on each section isgenerally low. When the power distribution is increasing, thetemperature cross section rises slowly in the inlet section. At thelocation of Z ¼ 1.6 m, the wall temperature reached a peak value,and after this position the temperature near the wall surfacegradually decreased. In the outlet section, the temperature changefrom the wall to the center of the tube tends to be gentle again.When the power is decreasing, the maximum heating power is inthe inlet section. Therefore, in the inlet section of the pipeline,when Z ¼ 0.4 m, the wall temperature reaches the maximum peakvalue. At this position the overall temperature of the pipe section isalso rising rapidly. When Z ¼ 0.8 m, the wall temperature graduallyfalls back, and then the temperature change at each cross-sectionalposition is relatively small. When the power is a Sine type distri-bution, the power value in the middle part of the pipeline is thehighest. At this time when Z ¼ 1.2 m, the wall temperature reachesa peak value.

It can be seen from Fig. 8 that the radial variation of the speed atdifferent vertical sections under different power distributions.When the heating power is increasing, the velocity at the positionof Z ¼ 1.2 m appears as a more pronounced “M” velocity distribu-tion. This is due to the large difference in density between the walland the center of the tube at this location. So a strong buoyancy

force is formed near the pipe wall, resulting in the emergence of aspeed M-type protrusion. This type of M-type velocity distributionmaintains untill the outlet of test section. When the power distri-bution is decreasing, when Z ¼ 0.4 m, the velocity radial distribu-tion of the pipe appears as an “M” profile. At this time the differencein density from the wall to the center of the tube is greatest. Whenthe heating power is a Sine type distribution, when Z ¼ 0.8 m, theradial velocity of the pipeline appears as a corresponding “M” typedistribution. The difference in density between the wall and thecenter of the tube is greatest now. When the heating power isuniform distributed, the speed increase at each position is relativelyeven and gentle, and the resulting “M” type speed peak effect is alsominimal.

Fig. 9 shows the radial variation of density at different verticalcross-sections at different power distributions. When the heatingpower is increasing, the density change is relatively small whenZ ¼ 0.0e0.8 m. And when Z ¼ 1.2 m the density variation in theradial direction is the greatest. When the heating power isdecreasing, the density difference at the inlet section is very large,and the density difference in radial reaches a maximum atZ ¼ 0.4 m. After Z ¼ 1.2 m, the change in the density difference isvery gentle and enters a state of pseudo-vapor state. When theheating power is in the Sine-type distribution, the density changeat the inlet and outlet sections is relatively large compared to whenthe heating power is uniform distributed.

It can be seen from Fig. 10 that the radial variation of the dy-namic viscosity at different vertical sections under differentheating power distributions. When the heating power is uniform,the radial distribution of the dynamic viscosity at different sec-tions is gradually reduced. When approaching the outlet, the

Fig. 7. The radial temperature changes under different heating power distribution conditions.

D. Ma et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Technology 50 (2018) 1079e10871084

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Fig. 9. The radial density changes under different heating power distribution conditions.

Fig. 8. The radial velocity changes under different heating power distribution conditions.

D. Ma et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Technology 50 (2018) 1079e1087 1085

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dynamic viscosity is already lower. When it is close to the pseudo-vapor state, the change in dynamic viscosity gradually becomesflat. When the heating power is increasing, the radial dynamicviscosity distribution at the position of Z ¼ 1.6 m is greatlychanged near the pipe wall. When the heating power isdecreasing, the radial dynamic viscosity distribution at the

position of Z ¼ 0.4 m shows a large change at the boundaryportion of the pipe wall. At this time in general, the dynamicviscosity at each section is minimal compared to other heatingpower distributions conditions. When the heating power is sinetype, the radial dynamic viscosity distribution at the position ofZ ¼ 1.2 m is greatly changed near pipe wall.

Fig. 11. The change of velocity in different heat flux distribution patterns.

Fig. 10. The radial dynamic viscosity changes under different heating power distribution conditions.

D. Ma et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Technology 50 (2018) 1079e10871086

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3.5. The velocity changes at different stages under different powerdistribution conditions

In order to facilitate the analysis of the velocity changes in theparts of the test section, the test section is divided into 10 parts.When the location of the test section is 0 m, 0.2 m, 0.4 m, 0.6 m,0.8 m, 1.0 m, 1.2 m, 1.4 m, 1.6 m, 1.8 m and 2.0 m respectively, thevelocity distribution cloud map and the corresponding velocityvector map are taken out and get together. The variation of velocityunder different power distribution conditions is obtained, as shownin Fig. 11.

As can be seen from Fig. 11, when heating power distribution ismonotonically decreasing, the distance where its speed is kept at arelatively low speed is shorter. In the process of transition to ahigher velocity phase, the radial velocity distribution presents anM-type distribution. When the heating power distribution ismonotonically increasing, the distance which its speed is kept at alow speed is the longest. And only in the outlet of the test section,its velocity distribution shows a rapid rise. But the thermal resis-tance of the fluid in this stage is relatively large. When the powerdistribution is the sine-type distribution, the distance of its speed atthe low velocity value is between monotone increasing andmonotone decreasing. The distance keep the lower velocity isshorter than a uniform distribution. At this condition, the heatingacceleration effect of the fluid in the middle part is more obviousthan that of the uniform power distribution, so the later speed isrelatively higher.

4. Conclusion

By simulating the natural circulation flow characteristics underdifferent power distribution conditions, the conclusions are asfollow:

(1) When the heating power is monotonically increasing distri-bution, it is easy to be affected by thermal resistance in thelater stage of the heating segment, which can lead to lowflow of natural circulation.

(2) When the heating power is monotonically decreasing dis-tribution, the bulk fluid is heated rapidly during the inletstage of the heating segment, so the mass flow rate increasesrapidly at the inlet stage. In the late heating segment theheating power is smaller. So the heat resistance is relativelysmall. Therefore, the flow value of natural circulation isrelatively higher overall.

(3) When the heating power is uniformly distributed, the peakof its wall temperature is the lowest in the distribution of allheating power forms. But the heating condition of uniformdistribution is an ideal heating type. Any form of non-uniform heating will lead to a higher peak value of walltemperature.

Acknowledgement

This research is financially supported by Beijing Natural ScienceFoundation (3172032), Fundamental Research Funds for the CentralUniversities (2017XS088).

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