An Instability Analysis of Ventilated Channels

A mathematical model has been developed for the linear stability analyses of a system of ventilated parallel boiling channels. The model accomodates phasic slip, nonuniform power distribution, local losses, heater wall dynamics, channel-to-channel (radial) power skews, discrete or continuous ventilation between the channels, turbulent mixing between the channels, various donor-cell options for the lateral transport of energy and momentum, and a transverse momentum equation. A special matrix reduction algorithm was developed to efficiently solve the system of linearized, Laplace-transformed, nodal equations. A parametric study revealed that phasic slip, axial power distribution, heater wall dynamics, local losses, lateral ventilation, and radial power skew can have a significant effect on the stability characteristics of the system [5]. Comparisons were made with the available experimental data, and good agreement was achieved.