During the core extraction maintenance of the external heat exchanger, how can the water remaining inside the tubes be completely drained?
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The external heat exchanger requires core removal for maintenance; due to the large amount of water inside the tubes, significant lifting equipment is needed for the entire core removal process. Is there any way to drain the water remaining inside the pipe first? Can introducing air at the steam outlet push out the water trapped there? Is a siphon feasible as well?
The best approach is to vaporize all the water inside the tube bundle when the temperature drops to around 200°C during shutdown. If shutdown has already taken place, it’s advisable to use a large crane; after all, the amount of water inside the tube bundle isn’t very heavy, and it might increase the weight by 10-20% at most. In the past, we would simply make holes at the bottom of the tube bundle to drain the water, which would result in the complete destruction of the tube bundle
Thank you. It’s not easy to achieve complete vaporization, so opening holes is not an option.