Experimental research on aerosols collection performance of self-priming venturi scrubber in FCVS

The self-priming venturi scrubber is the key component of filtered containment venting system to removal radioactive products during severe accident in nuclear power plant. In this paper, the collection performance of aerosols in the venturi scrubber is researched with experiment. The results indicate that the retention performance is closely related to the operating conditions and structures, and this relation is more closely for the removal of particle size under 0.5 mu m. The retention efficiency in a venturi scrubber increase with improving of both gas velocity and injection flow rate, and the influence of gas velocity on efficiency is more effective at low injection flow rate. The venturi scrubber with a long throat length or small diffuser angle performs excellent retention performance for small size aerosols. In condition of gas velocity higher as U-avg = 200 m/s and the sufficient injection flow rate, the retention efficiency maintains upon 99% for the aerosol that size range from 0.1 mu m to 10 mu m. The pressure loss of the venturi scrubber increase slightly with extending the length of throat, and also with reducing diffuser angles. The removal efficiency is usually at the expense of the energy loss, while the higher aerosol retention efficiency corresponds to bigger pressure loss. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.