During an accident causing the loss of the primary coolant (LOCA), partial or even complete drying of the fuel assemblies may occur. In these conditions, the fuel temperature increase and the coolant pressure drop in the reactor core may lead to significant deformation and rupture of the fuel rod cladding. Fuel fragmentation may occur, leading to fuel relocation within the ballooned area. Depending on the size and the distribution of the ballooned areas within the fuel bundle, the cooling flow might be impaired, which may challenge the fuel assembly coolability and, by extension, the core coolability. The COAL experiments focus on the outstanding issue of the coolability of a partially deformed fuel assembly, in particular the study of the thermal hydraulics behavior in the ballooned area, during cooling phase by water injection with the safety systems. Antagonistic influences due to the presence of a blockage will be evaluated through a semi integral experiment using a 7x7 bundle geometry at the full length scale. On one hand, the reduction of the section between the deformed fuel rods will increase the flow velocity. On the other hand, the flow bypass from the deformed fuel rods in the blocked region to the peripheral intact rods (cross-flow phenomena), will lead to a reduction of mass flow in the sub channels of the blockage and therefore the heat transfers. The possible presence of water droplets in the steam flow may modify this trend. Their role in heat transfer is important, whether through the heat extracted at their impact on the walls or via their vaporization in the bulk flow. Due to their inertia, their paths do not necessarily follow that of the steam flow path. This paper presents the test section, the thermal hydraulics parameters for the experiments and precalculations using DRACCAR code developed by IRSN. The results of these experiments will help to refine and validate the heat exchange models implemented in the code.