AN EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY OF STEADY-STATE BEHAVIOR OF A 2-PHASE NATURAL CIRCULATION LOOP

An experimental study on the steady-state behavior for a square, two-phase, natural circulation loop with water-steam as the working fluid is carried out in this study. Measurements of temperature and pressure distributions of the fluid around the loop were made under various heating and liquid-charge level conditions. Results show that fluid temperature and pressure at each location in the loop increase with increasing input power at a fixed percentage charge level. Higher fluid temperatures are observed at low percentage charge levels, and the overall heat transfer coefficient of the loop decreases with increasing percentage charge level at a fixed input power.