Master of Science / Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering / Donald L. Fenton / Increase in demand for energy necessitates nuclear power units to increase their peak power limits. This increase implies significant changes in the design of the nuclear power unit core in order to provide better economy and safety in operations. A major hindrance to the increase of nuclear reactor performance especially in Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) is the so called ‘Axial Offset Anomaly (AOA)’. An Axial Offset Anomaly (AOA) is the unexpected change in the core axial power distribution during the operation of a PWR from the predicted distribution. This problem is thought to be occurring because of precipitation and deposition of lithiated compounds such as lithium metaborate (LiBO[subscript]2) on the fuel rod. Due to its intrinsic property, the deposited boron absorbs neutrons thereby affecting the total power distribution in the reactor. AOA is thought to occur when there is sufficient build up of crud deposits on the cladding during subcooled nucleate boiling. Predicting AOA is difficult because there is little information regarding the heat and mass transfer during subcooled nucleate boiling. This thesis describes the experimental investigation that was conducted to study the heat transfer characteristics during subcooled nucleate boiling at prototypical PWR conditions. Pool boiling tests were conducted with varying concentrations of LiBO[subscript]2 and boric acid (H[subscript]2BO[subscript]3) solutions along with deionized water. The experimental data collected includes the effect of coolant concentration, degree of subcooling, system pressure and heat flux on pool boiling heat transfer coefficients. An analysis of deposits formed on the fuel rod during subcooled nucleate boiling is also included in the thesis. The experimental results reveal that the pool boiling heat transfer coefficient is degraded by the presence of boric acid and lithium metaborate in water. At concentration of 5000 ppm in water, the boric acid solution reduced the heat transfer coefficient by 23% and lithium metaborate solution reduced the heat transfer coefficient by 26%.

Axial offset anomaly (AOA) in pressurized water reactors (PWR) refers to deviation of the measured neutron flux in the top half of the core from the predicted values. Among other difficulties, AOA reduces the shutdown margin, and may force the plant to reduce power output. AOA is believed to be caused by three related phenomena occurring in the core while operating at full power: sub-cooled nucleate boiling concentrated mainly in the upper half of the core, corrosion product deposition on the cladding surface (crud), and the deposition of boron within the porous crud layer in regions of vigorous sub-cooled boiling. This study replicates the conditions within the PWR primary coolant; specifically, the temperature, pressure, peak surface heat flux, coolant velocity and water chemistry are simulated in order to produce prototypical crud on an electrically heated Zircaloy-4 test element. At the conclusion of each test run, the heated Zircaloy-4 test element is rapidly isolated from the coolant in order to trap any soluble boron species that may be present in the crud layer. The results of this investigation indicate that prototypical crud with significant boron deposition can be produced. The deposited boron compound has been determined to be lithium tetraborate (Li2B4O7). Comparative experiments have been run to determine the effect of coolant pH, concentration and type of additives, and duration of exposure on the thickness of the crud deposit. The data obtained in this investigation can be used to validate mechanistic models for crud deposition and AOA in pressurized water reactors.