A study of return to saturation oscillations in the OSU APEX thermal hydraulic testing facility

The purpose of this paper is to describe the flow oscillations which occur in the AP600 long term cooling test facility at Oregon State University. The AP600 system is an advanced pressurized water reactor design utilizing passive emergency cooling systems.;This paper will show that the oscillations have a definite region of onset and termination for specific conditions in the APEX testing facility. Tests performed at high powers, high elevation breaks, and small break sizes do not exhibit oscillations.;The APOS (Advanced Plant Oscillation Simulator) computer code has been developed using a quasi-steady state analysis for flows and a transient analysis for the core node energy balance. The pressure in the reactor head is calculated using a modified perfect gas analysis. For tank liquid inventories, a simple conservation of mass analysis is used to estimate the tank elevations. Simulation logic gleaned from APEX data and photographic evidence have been incorporated into the code to predict termination of the oscillations.;Areas which would make the work more complete include a better understanding of two-phase fluid behavior for a top offtake on a pipe, more instrumentation in the core region of the APEX testing facility, and a clearer understanding of fluid conditions in the reactor barrel.;A few hours after the initiation of a cold leg break, the passive cooling systems inject gravity fed cold water at a rate allowing steam production in the reactor vessel. Steam production in the core causes the pressure in the upper head to increase leading to flow oscillations in all the connecting reactor systems.;Scaling of the oscillations onset and pressure amplitude are relatively straightforward, but termination and period are difficult to scale to the full AP600 plant. Differences in the core power profile and other geometrical differences between the testing facility and the actual plant make the scaling of this phenomenon to the actual plant conditions very difficult.