During a postulated small break loss of coolant accident cooling water
is injected into the primary system to refill the reactor. pressure v
essel. To estimate the thermal stress at the reactor pressure vessel s
tructure caused by subcooled water it is important to know the condens
ation heat transfer to the water layer in the cold leg of the primary
loop. The LAOKOON test facility at the Technical University of Munich
was designed to investigate direct contact condensation at stratified
flow in a rectangular duct at pressure levels up to 6 MPa. To estimate
the local overall heat transfer coefficient at a certain position of
a water layer it is necessary to investigate the transport phenomena i
n the liquid phase and the vapor phase separately. Turbulence at the w
ater layer determines the liquid phase heat transfer resistance. The p
resence of non-condensable gases cause an additional heat transfer-res
istance at the vaporous phase. The major phenomena determining the ove
rall heat transfer resistance are discussed and summarized.