Linear Stability Analysis of a Heated Channel in the Supercritical Water Reactor

In this work, an analytical study of thermal-hydraulic instabilities in a supercritical channel is presented. A particular focus was devoted to density wave oscillations (DWOs), which are the most common instability phenomenon in supercritical flows. The physics of DWOs are studied from the perspective of linear dynamics, to point out the feedback mechanisms that lead to the onset of the oscillations. Starting from this analysis, a linear simulation tool is developed to assess the effect of the operational parameters of a supercritical channel on the system stability. The results are compared with previous stability analysis to verify the accuracy of the present methodology, obtaining a good agreement with just modest computational requirements.