Experimental study on effect of pressure on ADS-4 liquid entrainment characteristics in T-junction

Liquid entrainment phenomenon can occur in the T-junction formed by the vertical ADS-4 pipeline and the hot pipe section during SBLOCA process in AP1000 reactor. At present, most of the studies on the liquid entrainment phenomenon in T-junction with large branch pipe concentrate on the atmospheric pressure condition, which is difficult to accurately reflect the real state of the accident process. The liquid entrainment experiments were carried out at 0.1–0.4 MPa on ADETEL facility. The results show that there will be obvious reverse flow phenomenon in the branch at 0.1 MPa and the phenomenon disappears gradually with the increase of pressure. Furthermore, the occurrence of intermittent two-phase slug flow in the horizontal tube was observed at lower pressures. As pressure increases, the entrainment process will become more continuous and stable, with a concomitant reduction in intermittency. The steady-state entrainment liquid level and the onset of entrainment liquid level both decrease with increasing pressure, indicating that increasing pressure can facilitate the liquid entrainment amount. The existing correlations cannot accurately estimate the entrainment amount during SBLOCA in nuclear reactor with a deviation of more than +100% between the predictions and experimental data.