CFD Simulation of Pebble Bed Reactor for Various Gases
Disciplines
Computational Engineering | Computer-Aided Engineering and Design | Energy Systems | Fluid Dynamics | Heat Transfer, Combustion | Mechanical Engineering | Nuclear | Nuclear Engineering
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Pebble bed reactors (PBR) are a generation IV reactor type that offer notable advantages over traditional reactors in size, safety, and cost of construction. This makes PBRs a very attractive alternative to the more complex reactors designs currently operating while also offering a possible solution to increasing energy demands. In PBRs, the coolant is typically gaseous helium (He). The behavior of the fluid coolant is essential for understanding heat transfer in the PBR core. However, helium is not the only fluid that can be used. Analysis of different fluids, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), are being undertaken by various research groups, but initial data on heat transfer efficiency is unavailable for varying different pebble sizes. The primary goals of this research to provide initial data for CO2’s heat transfer efficiency and compare that to data found using He. CO2 will be compared to Helium for differences in temperature, velocity, and pressure distribution. Fixed initial inlet velocities will be considered and compared between He and CO2. For all the above objectives, an idealized cubic packing arrangement of fuel pebbles will be used and only a column of 9 by 3 pebbles will be studied using computational fluid dynamic analysis.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
SPCEET - Mechanical Engineering
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Dr. T.M. Yee
Additional Faculty
Dr. E.B. Farfán Dr. J. Park
CFD Simulation of Pebble Bed Reactor for Various Gases
Pebble bed reactors (PBR) are a generation IV reactor type that offer notable advantages over traditional reactors in size, safety, and cost of construction. This makes PBRs a very attractive alternative to the more complex reactors designs currently operating while also offering a possible solution to increasing energy demands. In PBRs, the coolant is typically gaseous helium (He). The behavior of the fluid coolant is essential for understanding heat transfer in the PBR core. However, helium is not the only fluid that can be used. Analysis of different fluids, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), are being undertaken by various research groups, but initial data on heat transfer efficiency is unavailable for varying different pebble sizes. The primary goals of this research to provide initial data for CO2’s heat transfer efficiency and compare that to data found using He. CO2 will be compared to Helium for differences in temperature, velocity, and pressure distribution. Fixed initial inlet velocities will be considered and compared between He and CO2. For all the above objectives, an idealized cubic packing arrangement of fuel pebbles will be used and only a column of 9 by 3 pebbles will be studied using computational fluid dynamic analysis.