Conductivity Probes for Two-Phase Flow Pattern Determination During Emergency Core Cooling (EEC) Injection Experiments at the COCO Facility (PHDR)

Within the frame of the PHDR reactor safety research programme a large series of emergency core cooling injection tests was performed. The tests aimed at the study of the flow structure in the main circulation pipe and the heat exchange between the injected subcooled water and the saturated steam originating from the reactor, a KONVOI type PWR. They were carried out at the COCO facility (COntact COndensation). The paper deals with the results from hot leg injection tests obtained by the needle shaped conductivity probes developed in Rossendorf. Eight probes were placed at different positions around the injection nozzle. In KONVOI PWRs a special feature is used for the injection, the so called "Hutze", which is a cylindrical half-shell welded to the bottom of the circulation pipe and directing the water towards the reactor vessel against the steam flow. The probes provided very clearly readable data about the flow structure in a high time resolution. The flow regime was characterized in the cases of stratified flow (counter-current and co-current), complete flow revers and intermittent flow revers with plug formation. Additionally, in several cases the flow velocity was measured by means of cross correlation techniques.