Impact of variable porosity models on the safety of high temperature pebble bed gas-cooled reactors

ABEL GÁMEZ RODRÍGUEZ; Leorlen Y Rojas Mazaira; Daniel Milian Perez; Dany Sanchez Dominguez; Carlos Rafael García Hernández; Carlos Alberto Brayner de Oliveira Lira

doi:10.15392/bjrs.v8i3A.1542

Authors

ABEL GÁMEZ RODRÍGUEZ Nuclear Energy Department - UFPE CRCN–NE/CNEN https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1584-6768
Leorlen Y Rojas Mazaira Nuclear Energy Department - UFPE CRCN–NE/CNEN https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9051-7032
Daniel Milian Perez Nuclear Energy Department - UFPE https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3172-0508
Dany Sanchez Dominguez Departamento de Ciências Exatas e Tecnológicas - UESC
Carlos Rafael García Hernández Nuclear Energy Department - Havana University
Carlos Alberto Brayner de Oliveira Lira Nuclear Energy Department - UFPE CRCN–NE/CNEN

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15392/bjrs.v8i3A.1542

Keywords:

Porosity models, HTR-10, CFD

Abstract

The Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) is one of the candidates of next generation of the nuclear reactors according to IAEA. Predicting the thermohydraulic behavior of High Temperature Reactors (HTR) is an important contribution to the development of this technology. Evaluation of thermohydraulic performance and a comparison with experimental data were proposed to the international research community. The impact of porosity of pebble beds in the thermohydraulic performance in normal operation and under accident condition is the goal of many kinds of research. In this sense, the three-dimensional CFD thermohydraulic simulation of a HTR using ANSYS CFX has been done. The full-scale approach is used to study the influence of different porosity scheme in the main structural materials of the HTR-10 reactor. The porous medium model was used to simulate the pebble bed core zone and the discharge system of pebbles. A comparison with experimental data was made. The steady-state thermohydraulic performance of the HTR-10 reactor at normal operation and anticipated transients without scram (ATWS) tests result, were used. In this work, was possible to estimate the effect of the porosity in the interior regions of the reactor and the impact on the temperature distribution. Finally, the study broadens the knowledge about the impact that the use of variable porosity has on safety analyses in pebble beds reactors.

Views: 145
PDF Downloads: 220

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

A. Gámez R. et al., “FULL SCALE CFD THERMOHYDRAULIC CALCULATION OF HIGH TEMPERATURE PEBBLE BED NUCLEAR REACTOR,” in International Nu-clear Atlantic Conference - INAC 2017, 2017.

Z. Gao and L. Shi, “Thermal hydraulic calculation of the HTR-10 for the initial and equilibri-um core,” Nucl. Eng. Des., vol. 218, no. 1–3, pp. 51–64, 2002.

IAEA, “Evaluation of High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor Performance: Benchmark Analysis Related to the PBMR-400, PBMM, GT-MHR, HTR-10 and the ASTRA Critical Facility,” IAEA, Vienna, 2013.

Z. Zhang, J. Liu, S. He, Z. Zhang, and S. Yu, “Structural design of ceramic internals of HTR-10,” Nucl. Eng. Des., vol. 218, no. 1–3, pp. 123–136, 2002.

Z. Wu, D. Lin, and D. Zhong, “The design features of the HTR-10,” Nucl. Eng. Des., vol. 218, no. 1–3, pp. 25–32, 2002.

G. Zuying and S. Lei, “Thermal hydraulic transient analysis of the HTR-10,” Nucl. Eng. Des., vol. 218, no. 1–3, pp. 65–80, 2002.

F. Chen, Y. Dong, Y. Zheng, L. Shi, and Z. Zhang, “Benchmark Calculation for the Steady-State Temperature Distribution of the HTR-10 under Full- Power Operation,” J. Nucl. Sci. Technol., vol. 46, no.

December 2012, pp. 572–580, 2009.

H. Zhao, Y. Dong, Y. Zheng, T. Ma, and X. Chen, “Numerical simulation on heat transfer process in the reactor cavity of modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor,” Appl. Therm. Eng., vol. 125, pp.

–1024, 2017.

Z. Li, Huaixuan, Zhang, Yajun, Li, “HTR-10 primary cavity cooling system and its features,” Tsinghua Univ, Beijing, China, vol. 38, no. 5, pp. 99–101, 1998.

L. Capone, Y. A. Hassan, and R. Vaghetto, “Reactor cavity cooling system (Rccs) experi-mental characterization,” Nucl. Eng. Des., vol. 241, no. 12, pp. 4775–4782, 2011.

W. K. Terry et al., “EVALUATION OF THE INITIAL CRITICAL CONFIGURATION OF THE HTR-10 PEBBLE-BED REACTOR,” 2007.

L. García, “Diseño conceptual de un sistema controlado por un acelerador para transmutación de residuos nucleares y aplicaciones energéticas,” Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Va-lencia, 2012.

A. S. Silva, L. Y. Rojas, D. S. Dominguez, C. R. García, A. Gámez, and C. A. Brayner, “Re-alistic CFD simulation of HTR-10 reactor using a face centred cubic column,” Int. J. Nucl. Energy Sci. Technol., vol.

, no. 3, 2016.

L. Y. Rojas, L. García, C. R. García, F. A. Escrivá, and C. A. Brayner, “Thermal-hydraulic studies of a transmutation advanced device for sustainable energy applications,” Int. J. Nucl. Energy Sci. Technol., vol. 9, no. 4, 2015.

C. Y. Wu, Y. M. Ferng, C. C. Chieng, and C. C. Liu, “Investigating the advantages and dis-advantages of realistic approach and porous approach for closely packed pebbles in CFD simulation,” Nucl. Eng. Des., vol. 240, no. 5, pp. 1151–1159, 2010.

L. Rojas Mazaira, D. Sanchez Dominguez, C. García, A. Gámez Rodríguez, and C. Brayner, “Realistic CFD simulation of compressible flow inside the core of the Pebble Bed Reactor HTR-10.,” in 1st Pan-American Congress on Computational Mechanics – PANACM 2015, 2015, pp. 840–848.

A. Gámez et al., “CFD thermohydraulic calculation for the steady-state of the real scale HTR-10,” in International Nuclear Atlantic Conference - INAC 2015, 2015.

A. Gámez, L. Rojas, D. S. Domínguez, J. Rosales, and Y. Landy, “CFD thermohydraulic calculation for the steady-state of the real scale HTR-10,” in International Nuclear Atlantic Conference - INAC 2015, 2015.

I. ANSYS, ANSYS CFX Solver Theory Guide, 15.0. Canonsburg, PA: ANSYS, Inc., 2013.

X. Yang, N. Gui, J. Tu, and S. Jiang, “3D DEM simulation and analysis of void fraction dis-tribution in a pebble bed high temperature reactor,” Nucl. Eng. Des., vol. 270, pp. 404–411, 2014.

M. Suzuki, T. Shinmura, K. Iimura, and M. Hirota, “Study of the wall effect on particle pack-ing structure using X-ray micro computed tomography,” Adv. Powder Technol., vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 183–195, 2008.

J. Theuerkauf, P. Witt, and D. Schwesig, “Analysis of particle porosity distribution in fixed beds using the discrete element method,” Powder Technol., vol. 165, no. 2, pp. 92–99, 2006.

W. Van Antwerpen, C. G. Toit, and P. G. Rousseau, “A review of correlations to model the packing structure and effective thermal conductivity in packed beds of mono-sized spherical particles,” Nucl. Eng. Des., vol. 240, no. 7, pp. 1803–1818, 2010.

G. E. Mueller, “Radial void fraction distributions in randomly packed fixed beds of uniform-ly sized spheres in cylindrical containers,” Powder Technol., vol. 72, pp. 269–275, 1992.

C. G. du Toit, “Radial variation in porosity in annular packed beds,” Nucl. Eng. Des., vol. 238, no. 11, pp. 3073–3079, 2008.

F. Al, G. Mueller, and M. Al-dahhan, “Pebble bed nuclear reactor structure study : A compar-ison of the experimental and calculated void fraction distribution,” Prog. Nucl. Energy, vol. 106, no. March, pp. 153–161, 2018.

X. Liang and L. Wei, “Commissioning and operation experience and safety experiments on htr-10,” in 3rd International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology, 2006, pp. 1–16.

F. Chen, Y. Dong, Z. Zhang, Y. Zheng, L. Shi, and S. Hu, “Post-test analysis of helium cir-culator trip without scram at 3 MW power level on the HTR-10,” Nucl. Eng. Des., vol. 239, no. 6, pp. 1010–1018, 2009.

S. Hu, R. Wang, and Z. Gao, “Safety demonstration tests on HTR-10,” 2nd Int. Top. Meet. High Temp. React. Technol., pp. 22–24, 2004.

S. Hu, R. Wang, and Z. Gao, “Transient tests on blower trip and rod removal at the HTR-10,” Nucl. Eng. Des., vol. 236, no. 5–6, pp. 677–680, 2006.