THERMAL STRESS CALCULATIONS FOR HEATPIPE-COOLED REACTOR POWER SYSTEMS.
- Richard J.
- Ray M.
A heatpipe-cooled fast reactor concept has been under development at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the past several years, to be used as a power source for nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) or as a planetary surface power system. The reactor core consists of an array of modules that are held together by a core lateral restraint system. Each module comprises a single heatpipe surrounded by 3-6 clad fuel pins. As part of the design development and performance assessment activities for these reactors, specialized methods and models have been developed to perform thermal and stress analyses of the core modules. The methods have been automated so that trade studies can be readily performed, looking at design options such as module size, heatpipe and clad thickness, use of sleeves to contain the fuel, material type, etc. This paper describes the methods and models that have been developed, and presents thermal and stress analysis results for a Mars surface power system and a NEP power source.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 975871
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-01-6386; TRN: US1006807
- Resource Relation:
- Journal Volume: 654; Conference: Submitted to: Space Technology and Applications International Forum, February 3-7, 2002, Albuquerque, NM
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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