Development of Subchannel Void Sensor for Wide Pressure and Temperature Ranges and Its Application to Boiling Flow Dynamics in a Heated Rod Bundle

A subchannel void sensor (SCVS) acquires the two-phase flow in a rod bundle as the time-series data of cross-sectional distributions. Herein, the temperature and pressure ranges of an SCVS were extended to include the rated conditions of boiling water reactors. The improved SCVSs were installed in a 5 × 5 heated rod bundle at eight height levels. In a boiling experiment using the rod bundle, the three-dimensional distributions of the boiling two-phase flow were measured over a wide pressure range (up to 7.2 MPa). The new experimental data were compared with existing experimental data and the results of a subchannel analysis. Experimental results were consistent with those of a high-energy X-ray computed tomography study of a heated rod bundle with the same geometry and under the same heat and flow conditions as those used in our study. The subchannel analysis code reproduced the experimental results fairly well, and the obtained database is applicable for validating and improving thermal-hydraulic analysis codes.