Thermohydraulic justification for the installation of block-containers with uranium-bearing material into experimental channel of WWR-c reactor

5/11/2014 2014 - #03 Thermal physics and thermal hydraulics

Kochnov O.Yu. Levchenko Yu. D. Chusov I.A.

https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2014.3.07

This paper presents the feasibility of block-containers with uranium-bearing fissionable material being installed into the experimental channels of the WWR-c reactor. Two versions of the block-container structure were examined, namely, those with regular and enhanced loading of the fissionable material. The arrangement of the cooling system for the experimental channels of the nuclear reactor was examined in detail, including the geometry of bench marks disposition where the basic equipment is located. Design-basis justification was performed using the ANSYS CFX 10.0 code. Design-basis justification for the cooling loop of the experimental channel was performed based on the solution of the Bernoulli equation. The following is shown: 1) the circulation loop with two experimental channels equipped with circulation pumps ensuring the head of ≈ 2 atm and the coolant flow of 3 m3/h does not require modernization for standard heat removal from irradiated block-containers at all reactor power levels (up to 15 MW); 2) the coolant heating in the cooling loop for experimental channels placed in series or in parallel (consisting of 4 block-containers) amounts to ≈ 4 °C; 3) the maximum temperature of the block-container walls significantly varies on the side of the main flow and on the side of the stagnant zone. In the most loaded block-containers (the third-from-the-bottom of four) the maximum temperature of the wall on the side of the main flow is no more than 70 °C, and on the side of the stagnant zone the wall temperature exceeds saturated water temperature where coolant sub-boiling is possible; 4) the pressure inside the gas cavity of the most loaded block-container does not exceed ≈ 1.5 atm which is the subtolerance value. It can be concluded that practically at all reactor power levels (up to and including 15 MW) bubble boiling occurs in the inner cavity of the block-container and has a beneficial effect on the heat transfer in general. The key results of the present paper are as follows: 1) the cooling loop of the experimental channels does not require modernization; 2) three or four block-containers can be installed into the reactor without affecting the safe operation of the nuclear facility.

References

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experimental reactor WWR-c experimental irradiation channel experimental testbed thermohydraulic characteristics of experimental channel

Link for citing the article: Kochnov O.Yu., Levchenko Yu. D., Chusov I.A. Thermohydraulic justification for the installation of block-containers with uranium-bearing material into experimental channel of WWR-c reactor. Izvestiya vuzov. Yadernaya Energetika. 2014, no. 3, pp. 62-72; DOI: https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2014.3.07 (in Russian).