Hydraulic experiments on a 1/5 Scale Model of APR1000 reactor

Abstract

The hydraulic characteristics at the reactor core are important information for licensing and design processes. The APR1000 reactor contains 177 fuel assemblies in the core region, and the core inlet flow of each fuel assembly must be presented with high accuracy through experimental methods. Core flow rates are significantly influenced by flow conditions and the hydraulic resistances of the internal structures. In this study, the Advanced power reactor COre Flow & Pressure (ACOP) test facility was constructed at a reduced scale of 1/5 to simulate the entire internal flow of the APR1000 reactor. The design concept and applied scaling method are briefly introduced, and preliminary experimental results are presented for core inlet flow and outlet pressure distributions under both balanced and unbalanced flow conditions.