KEKO facility

KEKO facility consisted of a large pressure vessel, piping and valves, heating assembly and measurement instrumentation. The pressure vessel was the accumulator 2 of the PACTEL facility with volume of 0,6 m³, inner diameter of 660 mm and height of 1930 mm. Measurement instrumentation was installed through the upper flange and heating assembly through the lower flange of the vessel. Design value for pressure was 60 bar and for temperature 225 °C. In practice, the temperature limit set the limit for experiment parameters. Since practically no superheated conditions occurred in the KEKO experiments, the pressure ranged only up to 16 bar.

Three pipelines were attached to the pressure vessel. The bottom of the pressure vessel was attached to bottom line, which was attached to feedwater line and lower discharge line. The head of the vessel was attached to top discharge line. The feedwater line connected the pressure vessel to pump and PACTEL feedwater tank. Lower discharge line connected the vessel to condensate receiver at atmospheric pressure. Top discharge line connected the vessel directly to atmosphere. Also an additional safety valve was attached to the head of the pressure vessel in order to prevent excessive pressure increase.

The heating assembly consisted of three electric resistance units with thermal power outputs of 1 kW, 2 kW and 4 kW. The electrical circuit arrangement enabled providing total heating power up to 7 kW at 0,5 kW steps. The used heating powers were 2 kW, 4 kW and 7 kW. The heating assembly was installed via the lower flange of the pressure vessel. The heating power was introduced axially symmetrically to the water body at elevation range 185 mm to 620 mm from the vessel bottom. The power was uniformly distributed over the total heating range. The heating assembly had also a thermostat to protect against overheating. Maximum temperature above the heating assembly was set to 225 °C.