Pressure drop measurements in Cable-In-Conduit Conductors (CICC) with different layouts

The issue of characterizing the hydraulic behaviour of Cable-In-Conduit Conductors (CICC's), in order to derive a friction factor and assess the pressure drop given the cable geometry, has always had to cope with the variety of different CICC layouts and testing conditions that restrict in fact the applicability of any experience-based correlation. Here, two different groups of CICC's with different layouts and void fractions as well as differences in the aspect ratio, are tested at CRPP Villigen and characterized hydraulically with both water and helium. The scope of such measurements is to integrate the existing database of pressure drop measurements in CICC's, currently limited to specific layouts, with data obtained from parametric variations and provide a satisfactory starting point to draw more general conclusions on friction factors for design purpose. The collected data will be compared to the existing Katheder law (1), as well as to a correlation based on porous media analogy (2).