Comparison Between Experimental Data and Numerical Modeling for the Natural Circulation Phenomenon
The study of natural circulation phenomenon has been object of crescent interest in scientific community in recent years. The new generation of compact nuclear reactors uses natural circulation of the fluid as a residual heat removal cooling system in case of accident or shutdown. The objective of this paper is to present a comparison between experimental data and numerical simulation results for the natural circulation phenomenon in single and two-phase flow regime. Experimental data were obtained from a circuit built with glass tubes, through which thermal hydraulic phenomenon visualization was possible. The circuit is composed of an electric heater as the heat source, a heat exchanger as the heat sink and an expansion tank to accommodate fluid density changes. Instrumentation data acquisition is performed through thermocouples and pressure meters, and controlled by a computer interface developed using LABVIEW. Numerical modeling and simulations were done with the thermal hydraulic code RELAP5, which is widely used for this purpose. The cyclic reverse flow observed in the circuit was well represented by the numerical model. The comparison demonstrated that the numerical simulations are very close to the experimental data.
Stability analysis of passive cooling systems for nuclear spent fuel pool
Passive cooling systems (PCSs) are engineering solutions to perform the function of heat transfer using the temperature difference between hot and cold sources to generate the driving force. These systems have increasing importance to nuclear power industry and are object of many studies since 1960s. One of the main concerns in PCSs is thermal-hydraulic stability. This work presents the results of a linear and a non-linear stability analysis of a single-phase natural circulation loop coupled to a nuclear spent fuel pool. The effect of the pool on the stability of the system is studied by linear and non-linear models. Results show that stability natural cooling loops are modified by the coupling with the pool. Moreover, the amount of water in the pool is non-monotonically related to the stability of the system.
Effects of reservoir volume on performance of pulse tube cooler.
A pulse tube cooler has the advantages of long-life and low-vibration over conventional cryocoolers such as G-M and Stirling coolers because of the absence of moving parts at low temperature. On the other hand, the combination of a reservoir and orifice is indispensable to optimize the performance of pulse tube coolers. In order to make the pulse tube cooler compact for practical applications, the volume of reservoir should be minimized. This paper analyzes the effects of the reservoir volume on the thermodynamic performance of various components in a simple orifice and a double-inlet pulse tube cooler by combining a linearized model with a thermodynamic analysis. Expressions of entropy production for those components are presented. The results show that the reservoir volume has a significant influence on the entropy production in the various components when the reservoir to pulse tube volume ratio is smaller than about 5. The ratio is important to determine the minimum reservoir volume for a pulse tube cooler. Optimum settings for a double-inlet pulse tube cooler are also discussed.