Primary coolant flow measurement for integral pressurized water reactors using ultrasonic technique - 182
Several pressurized water reactor (PWR) systems under development employ integral primary coolant loop designs, where the primary coolant does not leave the reactor pressure vessel during operation (I{sup 2}S-LWR, mPower, NuScale). The absence of primary coolant piping inhibits traditional pressurized water reactor primary coolant flow measurement, in which the differential pressure across the steam generator is correlated to flow rate. To address this, a transit time, reflection mode, ultrasonic flow meter is proposed. An experimental flow loop utilizing a test section representative of a thin azimuthal slice of the down-comer region of an integral PWR has been constructed to test the efficacy of the General Electric AT600 ultrasonic flow meter (UFM) in such an application. A Great Plains Industries TM300 turbine flow meter (TFM), reporting volumetric flow rate and installed in-line with the flow loop piping, is used as the reference meter. UFM performance is affected by several factors, including flow development and symmetry. The UFM was installed on three locations along the flow path of water through the test section. The meter performed the best at the downstream end of the test section, where the fluid flow is the most developed. Performance, measured by percent error in UFM average reading with respect to the TFM average reading, generally improved with increasing flow rate at all locations, though absolute difference between meter readings increased with flow rate. This research suggests that ultrasonic approaches hold promise for non-invasive measurement of primary coolant flow in integral PWRs. (authors)