Preliminary study in a sodium-loop facility for low flow-rate evaluation technology

Tanaka, Masaaki; Imamura, Hiroaki; Suzuki, Masashi; Murakami, Satoshi*

no journal, , 

In sodium-cooled fast reactors, electro-magnetic flow-meters (EMFs) installed in the cooling loops may have some degree of measurement uncertainty during the operation of the decay heat removal system by natural circulation because the flow rate in such condition is much decreased from that in the normal operation condition. Then, an evaluation technology in the low flow-rate condition complementary to the EMF has been developed. As the first trial, evaluation technology by analyzing correlations of temperature transient data on the outer surface of the pipe measured by thermo-couples at several locations along flow direction was examined in the existing sodium test loop. Preliminary evaluation results were reported and potentiality of the low flow-rate evaluation technology was confirmed.