Study of Convection Heat Transfer in a Very High Temperature Reactor Flow Channel: Numerical and Experimental Results
- City College of New York, NY (United States)
- Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States)
- City College of New York, NY (United States); CUNY Energy Inst., New York, NY (United States)
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Very High Temperature Reactors (VHTRs) are one of the Generation IV gas-cooled reactor models proposed for implementation in next generation nuclear power plants. A high temperature/pressure test facility for forced and natural circulation experiments has been constructed. This test facility consists of a single flow channel in a 2.7 m (9’) long graphite column equipped with four 2.3kW heaters. Extensive 3D numerical modeling provides a detailed analysis of the thermal-hydraulic behavior under steady-state, transient, and accident scenarios. In addition, forced/mixed convection experiments with air, nitrogen and helium were conducted for inlet Reynolds numbers from 500 to 70,000. Our numerical results were validated with forced convection data displaying maximum percentage errors under 15%, using commercial finite element package, COMSOL Multiphysics. Based on this agreement, important information can be extracted from the model, with regards to the modified radial velocity and property gas profiles. Our work also examines flow laminarization for a full range of Reynolds numbers including laminar, transition and turbulent flow under forced convection and its impact on heat transfer under various scenarios to examine the thermal-hydraulic phenomena that could occur during both normal operation and accident conditions.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1357608
- Report Number(s):
- INL/JOU-16-37821
- Journal Information:
- Nuclear Technology, Vol. 196, Issue 3; ISSN 0029-5450
- Publisher:
- American Nuclear Society (ANS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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