Flow boiling CHF enhancement in an external reactor vessel cooling (ERVC) channel using graphene oxide nanofluid

•We investigate CHF limits of graphene oxide nanofluid for IVR-ERVC.•Graphene oxide nanofluid enhanced CHF up to about 20%.•CHF enhancement can be explained by the improved thermal activity. External reactor vessel cooling for in-vessel retention of corium is an important concept to mitigate the consequences of a severe accident by flooding the reactor cavity. Although this system has some merits, it is restricted by the capacity of heat removal through the nucleate boiling on the outer surface of the reactor. In this study, the graphene oxide (GO) nanofluid at 0.0001vol% was used to enhance the critical heat flux (CHF). The CHF tests were conducted with a closed-loop facility. Test section simulated the reactor vessel of APR-1400 with a small scale. The test results show about ∼20% enhancement of CHF at 50 and 100kg/m2s under a 10K subcooling condition. It means that the additional thermal margin could be acquired by just adding the GO nanoparticles to the flooding water without severe economic concerns. It is also found that this CHF enhancement is caused by coating the graphene oxide nanoparticles on the heated surface. However, the sessile drop tests on the coated heater surface show that the wettability of GO coated surface is not improved. The results of IR thermography show that one of the promising reasons is the change of thermal activity due to the coated GO nanoparticles on the heated surface.