Advances in Engineering Advances in Engineering features breaking research judged by Advances in Engineering advisory team to be of key importance in the Engineering field. Papers are selected from over 10,000 published each week from most peer reviewed journals.
J.J. Janse van Rensburg, M. Kleingeld
Nuclear Engineering and Design, Volume 241, Issue 12, December 2011
Abstract
An area that has been identified as significantly important in the development of a high temperature reactor (HTR) is the prediction of leakage and bypass flows. It is therefore essential to understand the influence of leakage and bypass flows on the thermal performance of an HTR.
A methodology was developed to conduct an integral thermal analysis of a reactor using a CFD approach. One of the main objectives was to include leakage and bypass flow paths in order to provide a capability for simulating these very detailed flows.
This paper investigates leakage and bypass flows through the PBMR reactor unit. It was found that, although these flows are dependent on the pressure drop through the pebble bed, a change in pebble bed pressure drop does not result in a similar change in the predicted leakages flows. It is also shown that the ability to account for leakage and bypass flows in an integral manner can help designers to focus their efforts on the specific regions that need to be targeted for the improvement of the life expectancy of the graphite blocks. Furthermore, leakage and bypass flows were found to reduce the pressure drop across the reactor unit while increasing the peak fuel temperatures.
Additional Information:
Janse van Rensburg, J., J., Kleingeld, M., ‘An integral CFD approach for the thermal simulation of the PBMR Reactor Unit’, Nuclear Engineering and Design Journal, Volume 241, 2011, pp. 3130– 3141.
Janse van Rensburg, J., J., Kleingeld, M., ‘CFD applications in the pebble bed modular reactor project: A decade of progress’, Nuclear Engineering and Design Journal, Volume 241, 2011, pp. 3683– 3696.
Janse van Rensburg, J., J., Kleingeld, M., ‘A CFD method to evaluate the integrated influence of leakage and bypass flows on the PBMR Reactor Unit’, Nuclear Engineering and Design Journal, Volume 241, 2010, pp. 3841–3850.
Janse van Rensburg, J., J., Kleingeld, M., ‘Investigating leakage and bypass flows in an HTR using a CFD methodology’, Nuclear Engineering and Design Journal, Volume 241, 2011, pp. 4960–4971.
Go to Journal
