1.

LBLOCA (Large Break Loss of Coolant Accidents)

A large break involves a very rapid depressurization, a highly turbulent, almost homogeneous blowdown and almost complete emptying of the primary system. Blowdown and core uncovery take tens of seconds and the course of events is largely governed by the critical flow discharge from the break. Reactor shutdown or scram occurs automatically and almost immediately following the rupture. Core cooling departs from nucleate boiling during the first second or so of blowdown and this is followed soon after by core uncovery.

Two-phase flow phenomena and boiling phenomena during blowdown

The blowdown phase of LBLOCA progresses very rapidly and over within 20 sec. As soon as break occur the sub cooled liquid is discharged from the vessel side and pump side. Since frictional pressure drop is considerably larger through pump side break the vessel side discharges larger quantities of water inventory from vessel. This leads to core flow stagnation at both core inlet and outlet. The locations where stagnation occur changes with time, hence some portions of the core have flow moving in the downward direction and some portions of the core have flow moving in the upward direction. Next critical heat flux is reached in the core and heat transfer changes from nucleate to the film boiling regime. The core dries out and cladding temperature due to stored energy. The system pressure decreases to the saturation temperature level for the coldest water in the system, that is, the water in the downcomer, lower plenum and cold leg. Saturated water begins to exit the system through the break and saturated choked flow occurs; the presence of steam, from flashing, throughout the system increases the fluid frictional pressure drop. As the pressure continues to decrease, it reaches saturation pressure for the broken cold-leg fluid; this leads to voiding and increases the flow resistance. Consequently, the rate of break flow rate is decreased The increase in frictional pressure drop together with the decreasing break flow rate combines to enable some of the intact loop flow into the downcomer to enter the core barrel instead of bypassing the core and being routed to the break. The flow entering the core barrel is starts cooling the core causing initial rewetting. Thus the cladding temperatures begin to decrease. During the latter portion of the blowdown the continued global flashing of the liquid throughout the vessel, and in particular the downcomer, lower plenum, and upper headleading to dispersed droplet flows to cool the core region.

Two-phase flow phenomena and boiling phenomena during Re flood

In this phase initially core refill is quite rapid because the downcomer is maintained full by the continued ECC injection and there is very little resistance in the intact loop because there is not steam flow and no liquid to vaporize in the steam generation. Due to the high temperatures of the fuel rods, the thermal regimes in the core during reflood encompass the entire spectrum: starting with single-phase liquid and

progressing through the core with nucleate boiling, transition boiling, film boiling, churn two-phase flow, dispersed droplet flow and single phase steam flow. Due to droplet de-entrainment at the tie plate and grid spacers, top quenching and local quenching occur in addition to the bottom one. The core power profile, with the center at higher power levels and the periphery at lower power levels, plays a role in creating higher vapour velocities at the central region of the core that lead to liquid entrainment while liquid collected in the upper head flows downward into the peripheral lower powered core regions. Hence a three-dimensional flow pattern is established with a chimney effect in the central core region and fallback into the lower powered regions. The entrained liquid moving upward in the high-powered portion of the core cools the central rods Liquid entrainment may also occur in the upper plenum as steam, moving into the hot legs, also carries liquid droplets. These droplets may be de-entrained on the upper plenum structures. Ultimately the mixture level of the water pool in the upper plenum reaches the hot leg elevation

2. SBLOCA (Small Break Loss of Coolant Accidents)

Small-break LOCA's or leaks are characterized by an extended period (from tens of minutes to several hours) after the occurrence of the break, during which the primary system remains at a relatively high pressure and the core remains covered.

Types of two-phase phenomena

flow

phenomena

and

boiling

It can be seen from figure 27, liquid carried to the SG upflow side is held-up by the upward moving steam flow. Consequently, although hot-side and the cold-side of the primary are hydrostatically balanced, a portion of the core gradually uncovers and may experience a heat up. As the liquid inventory in the SG U-tube upflow side increases, the liquid in the loop seal (the piping between the recirculation pump and the SG outlet side) is depressed in reaction to the core liquid level depression. This condition is resolved ultimately when the loop seal is sufficiently depressed that steam pushes its way to the cold leg (this phenomena is called loop seal clearing) with the net result that the core liquid depression is relieved and the core is once again fully covered. The two-phase flow phenomena and boiling phenomena for SBLOCA are as follows Core and loop seal depression U tube up flow Boiling and condensation Two phase flow (frictional and acceleration effects)

The major difference between a small break and a large break LOCA are in the rates of coolant discharge and pressure variations with time. The reactor system response to a small break is slower compared to events after a large break. This allows more time, and different possibilities, for operator interventions. Another principal difference is the domination of gravity effects in small breaks versus inertial effects in the large breaks