Development of Figure of Merits (FOMs) for Intermediate Coolant Characterization and Selection
This paper focuses on characterization of several coolant performances in the IHTL. There are lots of choices available for the IHTL coolants; gases, liquid metals, molten salts, and etc. Traditionally, the selection of coolants is highly dependent on engineer's experience and decisions. In this decision, the following parameters are generally considered: melting point, vapor pressure, density, thermal conductivity, heat capacity, viscosity, and coolant chemistry. The followings are general thermal-hydraulic requirements for the coolant in the IHTL: (1) High heat transfer performance - The IHTL coolant should exhibit high heat transfer performance to achieve high efficiency and economics; (2) Low pumping power - The IHTL coolant requires low pumping power to improve economics through less stringent pump requirements; (3) Low amount of coolant volume - The IHTL coolant requires less coolant volume for better economics; (4) Low amount of structural materials - The IHTL coolant requires less structural material volume for better economics; (5) Low heat loss - The IHTL requires less heat loss for high efficiency; and (6) Low temperature drop - The IHTL should allow less temperature drop for high efficiency. Typically, heat transfer coolants are selected based on various fluid properties such as melting point, vapor pressure, density, thermal conductivity, heat capacity, viscosity, and coolant chemistry. However, the selection process & results are highly dependent on the engineer's personal experience and skills. In the coolant selection, if a certain coolant shows superior properties with respect to the others, the decision will be very straightforward. However, generally, each coolant material exhibits good characteristics for some properties but poor for the others. Therefore, it will be very useful to have some figures of merits (FOMs), which can represent and quantify various coolant thermal performances in the system of interest. The study summarized in this paper focuses on developing general FOMs for the IHTL coolant selection and shows some estimation results.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - NE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1027900
- Report Number(s):
- INL/CON-11-20829; TRN: US1105298
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: American Nuclear Society: 2011 Annual Meeting,Hollywood Florida,06/26/2011,06/30/2011
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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