基于中子成像的空气-水两相流动参数提取方法研究

Research on Extraction Method of Air-water Two-phase Flow Parameters Based on Neutron Imaging

  • 摘要: 两相流常见于沸水堆、高功率密度的压水堆以及其他液态冷却的核反应堆。传统探测手段难以获得高温高压下两相流动信息,但中子成像技术能在不影响流动的情况下穿过金属管道获得两相流动信息。本文对竖直圆管的空气-水两相流动开展中子可视化研究,提出了一套中子成像在两相流动中图像处理的方法,通过对中子成像图像进行处理分析获得两相流动关键信息空泡份额和气相速度,并与经验关系式和理论计算结果相对比,验证了中子成像技术在两相流动研究的可行性。

     

    Abstract: Two-phase flow phenomena are commonly observed in boiling water reactor (BWR), high-power-density pressurized water reactor (PWR), and other liquid-cooled nuclear reactors. For example, a certain amount of steam is generated in the coolant channels of BWR cores. Although modern PWRs do not permit nucleate boiling in the entire core average channels, subcritical or even saturated nucleate boiling is allowed in the hottest channels. In steam generators, the quantity of steam produced far exceeds within the reactor core. During reactor accidents, particularly loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCAs), the entire primary circuit system transitions into a two-phase flow condition. Traditional methods such as high-speed camera observation, probe detection, γ-ray and X-ray imaging are unsuitable for observing two-phase flow due to their limitations in penetrating non-transparent pipelines, invasiveness, and shallow penetration depth, respectively. However, neutron imaging technology can effectively capture two-phase flow information through metal pipelines without disrupting the flow. Previous studies using neutron imaging have primarily focused on qualitative analysis, with limited systematic quantitative research. Moreover, the luminous flux after neutron conversion is far less than that of optical imaging, most image processing methods and techniques applicable to optical imaging will not be suitable for neutron imaging. Therefore, a neutron visualization study on air-water two-phase flow in vertical circular pipes was presented and a comprehensive image processing method for neutron imaging in two-phase flow was introduced in this paper. The neutron imaging two-phase flow image processing methods were mainly divided into three steps. The first step was preprocessing, which requires normalizing the two-phase flow images, full water images, empty water images, and dark field images that have been captured, and then performing noise reduction processing on the processed images. The second step was void fraction calculation, which involves calculating the void fraction information by bringing the processed full water images, empty water images, and dark field images into the two-phase flow images. The third step was gas phase velocity calculation, which tracks the gas bubbles using the average cross-sectional void fraction value and calculates the gas phase velocity. Finally, the results of the void fraction calculations were compared with those obtained from the empirical correlation proposed by Soviet scholar Armand. Additionally, the position tracking of the average cross-sectional void fraction was compared with theoretical values to derive gas phase velocity. An error analysis was conducted, identifying primary sources of error as bubble aggregation, neutron imaging image errors, and flow fluctuations caused by pumps. The overall error is relatively small, thereby validating the accuracy and reliability of the method presented in this paper. The application of neutron imaging technology in two-phase flow research was primarily investigated in the study. The successful implementation of neutron imaging in air-water two-phase flow demonstrates its feasibility in this field. Future research will focus on addressing hydrogen scattering issues that significantly impact neutron imaging accuracy and exploring neutron visualization of high-temperature and high-pressure water two-phase flow.

     

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