Thermal-Hydraulic Research Laboratory

Department of Nuclear Engineering

Texas A&M Engineering
  • About Us
  • People
    • Former Students
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • News
You are here: Home / Current Projects / Critical Heat Flux Test Facility

Critical Heat Flux Test Facility

PWR Fuel BundleThe Critical Heat Flux / Departure from Nucleate Boiling test loop provides a means of evaluating the DNB performance of test geometries representative of commercial pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear fuel. The test facility has operated at the Product Engineering Development Laboratory, which is part of the Westinghouse Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility (Columbia, SC). The facility has been moved to our laboratory.

With a total power installed of 0.5 MW, 500 psia (3.5 MPa), independent cooling loop, dedicated cooling tower, the facility is able to host different fuel designs to generate new experimental data for current and advanced fuel designs. The use of Freon (R-11) and coolant, allows for achieving water-equivalent prototypical PWR conditions.

Upgrades with state-of-the-art instrumentation for temperature and void fraction measurements, in conjunction with existing instrumentation installed is the key to success for this facility.

Current test bundle features twenty-five electrically heated/instrumented rods, and organized within the 5×5 array to simulate a specific radial power shape.

The experimental facility is now in operation. Shakedown tests have been performed under different flow rates and power. Instrumentation has been upgraded with new accurate devices, and calibrated.

CHF facility

See time laps of the facility construction below.

 

Tagged With: light water reactor

Our Current Projects

A supportive COVID-19 study: Experimental Investigation on a Human Sneeze

A supportive COVID-19 study: How effective are common materials as homemade respiratory masks?

V&V Benchmark Problem #2 – Single-Jet Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Numeric Model Validation

Wire Wrapped Fuel Assembly

The Water-Cooled Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS)

Pebble Bed Test Facility

Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) Facility: “The Cold Leg Mixing CFD-UQ benchmark”

The Generic Safety Issue 191

Experimental Studies of PWR 5×5 Fuel Bundles

Helical Coil Steam Generator Test Loop

Thermal-Hydraulic Research Laboratory

Department of Nuclear Engineering                 3380 University Drive East
College Station, TX 77845

ph. 979-845-4109

Texas A&M University Department of Nuclear Engineering

  • Texas A&M University
  • State Links & Policies
  • Web Accessibility
  • State of Texas
  • Texas Homeland Security
  • Open Records
  • Texas CREWS
  • Risk, Fraud & Misconduct Hotline
  • Environmental Health, Safety & Security
  • Statewide Search
  • Employment

Copyright © 2021 · Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station · All Rights Reserved