SULTAN test facility for large-scale vessel coolability in natural convection at low pressure Original Research Article

The SULTAN facility (France/CEA/CENG) was designed to study large-scale structure coolability by water in boiling natural convection. The objectives are to measure the main characteristics of two-dimensional, two-phase flow, in order to evaluate the recirculation mass flow in large systems, and the limits of the critical heat flux (CHF) for a wide range of thermo-hydraulic (pressure, 0.1–0.5 MPa; inlet temperature, 50–150°C; mass flow velocity, 5–4400 kg s−1 m−2; flux, 100–1000 kW m−2) and geometric (gap, 3–15 cm; inclination, 0–90°) parameters. This paper makes available the experimental data obtained during the first two campaigns (90°, 3 cm; 10°, 15 cm): pressure drop differential pressure (DP) = φ(G), CHF limits, local profiles of temperature and void fraction in the gap, visualizations. Other campaigns should confirm these first results, indicating a favourable possibility of the coolability of large surfaces under natural convection.