Modeling of a Generic Pebble Bed High-temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (PB-HTGR) with SAM
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
This report presents the modeling of the core of a generic pebble-bed reactor (PBR) at the system level using the System Analysis Module (SAM) code. This work is an extension of a previous work by the authors (Ooi et al. (2021)) that used the so-called 2-D ring model approach to model the PBMR-400. With the new approach, the pebble bed of the reactor is modeled with multiple PBCoreChannel components with spherical heat structures which allows the code to calculate thermal fluid parameters with built-in closure relations. The new core-channel approach is an improvement to the 2-D ring model approach as it does not introduce geometric distortions to the model and thus reduces the uncertainties of the predictions. In addition to thermal fluid simulations, point kinetics (PKE) are included to the model. Simulations are performed under a steady-state normal operation condition and a load-following transient scenario. This particular transient scenario is chosen as it tests both the thermal fluid and neutronics aspects of the model. The predicted results from both the steady-state and transient scenarios are compared with the results by Stew- art et al. (2021) who performed similar simulations with a Griffin-Pronghorn coupled tool. Despite the differences between the codes, with SAM being a system-analysis code and Pronghorn being a porous-medium code, both sets of results compare favorably. The over- all profiles and trends of the predicted temperatures and reactivities from the SAM and Griffin/Pronghorn simulations are similar, with some differences in their predicted values. The first part of the report covers the significance of a relatively fast-running approach that is capable of modeling the pebble bed reactor at the system-level while simultaneously capturing the radial thermal behavior of the core. Then, the modeling approach used in this work is discussed in details. Lastly, the results and comparisons with the Griffin/Pronghorn simulation are presented.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1884970
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/NSE-22/59; 177957
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Multi-Physics System-level Simulations of a Generic Pebble Bed High-Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor with Coupled SAM/Griffin Model
Fluoride-Cooled High-Temperature Pebble-Bed Reactor Reference Plant Model Updates
Gas-Cooled High-Temperature Pebble-Bed Reactor Reference Plant Model Updates
Technical Report
·
Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2023
·
OSTI ID:1994383
Fluoride-Cooled High-Temperature Pebble-Bed Reactor Reference Plant Model Updates
Technical Report
·
Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2025
·
OSTI ID:2998898
Gas-Cooled High-Temperature Pebble-Bed Reactor Reference Plant Model Updates
Technical Report
·
Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2025
·
OSTI ID:2998899