Experimental Study of Effects of Non-Condensable on Condensation in a Vertical Tube Bundle

One of the engineered safety systems in the advanced boiling water reactor is a passive containment cooling system (PCCS) which is composed of a number of vertical heat exchanger. After a loss of coolant accident, the pressurized steam discharged from the reactor and the noncondensable (NC) gases mixture flows into the PCCS condenser tube. The PCCS condenser must be able to remove sufficient energy from the reactor containment to prevent containment from exceeding its design pressure. The efficient performance of the PCCS condenser is thus vital to the safety of the reactor. In PCCS condenser tube three flow conditions are expected namely the forced flow, cyclic venting and complete condensation modes. The PCCS test facility consists of steam generator (SG), instrumented condenser with secondary pool boiling section, condensation tank, suppression pool, storage tank, air supply line, and associated piping and instrumentation. The specific design of condensing tube is based on scaling analysis from the PCCS design of ESBWR. The scaled PCCS is made of four tubes of diameter 52.5mm and height 1.8 m arranged in square pitch. Steam air mixture condensation tests were carried out in a through flow mode of operation where the mixture flows through the condenser tube with some steam condensation. Data on condensation heat transfer were obtained for two nominal pressures, 225 kPa and 275 kPa and for air concentration fraction from 0 to 13%. Test results showed that with increase in pressure the condensation heat transfer increased. The presence of the air in the steam decreased the condensation heat transfer coefficient from 10 to 45% depending on air fraction in the steam.