THE THERMAL HYDRAULICS LABORATORY

1. THE STEAM WATER COUNTER-CURRENT FLOW FACILITY

The test rig is designed to carry out experiments on two-phase counter-current flow. The facility can  accommodate both vertical and inclined test sections up to a length of 1.8m. Test section inclination angles up to 90^o from the vertical can be accommodated. Steam is supplied to the test section from a 150 kW steam generator controlled by Watlow electronic controllers. Clean water from a Culligan water system is pumped using a hot-water pump into the test section. The test rig is further equipped with high-frequency response Kulite pressure transducers, mass flow rate meters and thermocouples to study the influence of different parameters on the phenomenon of Counter Current Flooding Limitation (CCFL). The test section is designed by a graduate student Niki Williams and the facility built by undergraduate Peter Maginot, under the guidance of Dr. Isaac Choutapalli and Dr. Karen Vierow. A detailed description of the test facility can be found here.

The laboratory is also equipped with a Z-type mirror-based schlieren system to provide a qualitative flow field map of the two-phase counter current flow on an inclined test section at any given location.  The schlieren imaging is carried out on a transparent 1.8 m long test section that can be inclined at different angles. The primary hardware includes a CMOS camera (IDT XS-4) capable of reaching frame rates up to 10000 Hz and equipped with a telephoto AF micro-nikkor 105mm f/2.8 lens, two 4.0 inch first surface parabolic mirrors, a gradient filter and a 12 V light source. The schlieren system was set up by an undergraduate student Peter Maginot, under the guidance of Dr. Isaac Choutapalli. A detailed description of the transparent (acrylic) test section can be found here.

Department of Nuclear Engineering | Dwight Look College of Engineering | Texas A&M University | NHTS Lab Home

Website maintained by Isaac Choutapalli, Last Updated: March 12, 2008