Analysis of Density Wave Oscillations in Helically Coiled Tube Once-Through Steam Generator

Helically coiled tube Once-Through Steam Generator (H-OTSG) is one of the key equipment types for small modular reactors. The flow instability of the secondary side of the H-OTSG is particularly serious, because the working condition is in the range of low and medium pressure. This paper presents research on density wave oscillations (DWO) in a typical countercurrent H-OTSG. Based on the steady-state calculation, the mathematical model of single-channel system was established, and the transfer function was derived. Using Nyquist stability criterion of the single variable, the stability cases were studied with an in-house computer program. According to the analyses, the impact law of the geometrical parameters to the system stability was obtained. RELAP5/MOD3.2 code was also used to simulate DWO in H-OTSG. The theoretical analyses of the in-house program were compared to the simulation results of RELAP5. A correction factor was introduced to reduce the error of RELAP5 when modeling helical geometry. The comparison results agreed well which showed that the correction is effective.