Thermal Hydraulic Experimental Test Article: Status Report for FY2019
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
The Thermal Hydraulic Experimental Test Article (THETA) is a facility that will be used to develop sodium components and instrumentation as well as acquire experimental data for validation of reactor thermal hydraulic and safety analysis codes. The facility will simulate nominal conditions as well as protected/unprotected loss of flow accidents in an SFR. High fidelity distributed temperature profiles of the developed flow field will be acquired with Rayleigh backscatter based optical fiber temperature sensors. The facility is being designed in partnership with systems code experts to tailor the experiment to ensure the most relevant and highest quality data for code validation. Figure 1 illustrates the main components of the primary system. THETA will be installed in the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL) with the primary system in the 28 inch Test Vessel #4, the secondary system in the 18-inch Test Vessel #6, and its sodium-to-air heat exchanger will occupy the location for 18-inch Test Vessel #5 (Test Vessel #5 will not be installed), Figure 2. The design work for the facility has been completed and is currently in the procurement, manufacturing and initial testing stage. The THETA primary system, including the redan, inlet and outlet plenum, 38 kW electric core simulant heater, submerged flowmeter, pump, and all instrumentation has either been procured or is currently being tested at Argonne. The secondary sodium system for cooling the tube-side sodium of the intermediate heat exchanger has all been analyzed according to ASME code and is in the final development stages before procurement.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Reactor Fleet and Advanced Reactor Development. Office of Nuclear Energy Technologies
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1558798
- Report Number(s):
- ANL-ART-176; 154564
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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