Impact of local property variations of reactor coolant on cladding temperature distribution in supercritical water reactors

  • Jianguo Zhong Center for Multiphase Research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • Steven P. Antal Center for Multiphase Research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • Michael Z. Podowski Center for Multiphase Research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Abstract

Fluids at supercritical pressures are considered to be very promising as coolants for Generation IV reactor systems, including the supercritical water cooled reactor (SCWR), the CO2-cooled reactor (SCCO2R) and the Brayton cycle as a secondary system in sodium-cooled fast reactors.The operating conditions of such reactors allow for a significant thermodynamic efficiency increase of the respective power plants.  On the other hand, several unresolved issues must still be addressed in order to develop a viable design of supercritical fluid nuclear systImpact of local property variations of reactor coolant on cladding temperature distribution in pupercritical water reactorsems.   Examples include:  in-core heat transfer in SCWRs, heat exchangers in the S-CO2 Brayton cycle, and flows in complex geometries of SCO2 compressors.It has been shown before that the understanding of the effect of fluid property variations on turbulence is a major factor in our ability to predict the combined fluid mechanics and heat convection in systems and components using supercritical fluids.  The objective of this paper is to present the results of analysis on the effect of local multidimensional flow and heat transfer phenomena on the temperature distribution inside future SCWRs. Two proposed SCWR designs have been considered: a single-pass and a two-pass coolant flow configurations through the reactor core.   It should be noted that a preliminary documentation of the results of the current work has been included in the materials of the NURETH-15 conference.

References

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Published
2015-01-31
How to Cite
ZHONG, Jianguo; ANTAL, Steven P.; PODOWSKI, Michael Z.. Impact of local property variations of reactor coolant on cladding temperature distribution in supercritical water reactors. Journal of Power Technologies, [S.l.], v. 94, n. 5, p. 51--60, jan. 2015. ISSN 2083-4195. Available at: <https://papers.itc.pw.edu.pl/index.php/JPT/article/view/591>. Date accessed: 02 dec. 2024.

Keywords

local property variations of reactor coolant; reactor coolant; cladding temperature distribution; supercritical water reactors

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