Experimental studies on high-pressure high-temperature contact-condensation at falling jets in the TOPFLOW pressure-tank

Abstract We report on generic experimental studies dealing with the direct contact condensation of steam at a falling sub-cooled water jet at high pressure and temperature. This generic problem concerns some safety-relevant thermal hydraulic scenarios in light water reactors. One of such is the question for heat transfer and mixing when a sub-cooled jet of water in an emergency core-cooling scenario enters a hot pressurized component of the primary reactor circuit. The involved phenomena of heat transfer are complex in this case, reaching from direct condensation of steam via steam bubble entrainment to single phase mixing of hot and cold water. Experiments were performed in the TOPFLOW pressure tank, which is an experimental facility for high-pressure thermal hydraulics experiments in pressure equilibrium. The facility has been designed for studying steam-water two-phase flows at pressures of up to 50 bar. It enables to run experiments in flow domains of complex shape without high difference pressures across the wall. The concept therefore allows us to use thin metal walls and even glass windows to observe flows in complex geometry domains with the help of video camera and to considerably reduce cost and complexity of experimental installations. The experimental results show, that high ambient pressure promotes the direct contact condensation heat transfer of subcooled jet flow heavily.