A novel nonlinear radiative heat exchanger for molten-salt applications

Abstract

One of the main difficulties associated with using molten salts as heat transfer fluids (HTFs) in practical applications such as in the solar and nuclear energy industries is the possibility of solidifying molten salts. Since the salts proposed for Generation-IV nuclear reactors (MSRs) have higher melting points, this is especially true for those reactors. The consequences of accidental freezing within the direct reactor auxiliary cooling system (DRACS) of MSRs could be catastrophic. DRACS is a passive safety system designed to remove decay heat from the reactor core during an emergency. The present study examines, as a case study, the freezing problem in the most vulnerable component of DRACS, namely the natural draft heat exchanger (NDHX). For this application, a unique and innovative heat exchanger design termed radiative heat exchanger (RHX) is proposed, with nonlinear heat transfer characteristics. Specifically, by suppressing convection and exploiting thermal radiation as the primary heat transfer mechanism, the RHX concept reduces the heat rejection/removal rate passively to allow safe operation when the molten salt coolant temperature drops and is near its melting point, while maintaining a high capacity for decay heat extraction in case the coolant temperature rises during an accident and the reactor becomes overheated; this moderation of the heat removal rate is accomplished without the requirement for external (manual or automatic) control. A thermohydraulic model is developed and applied to evaluate the proposed RHX with the existing conventional NDHX. Compared to the conventional design, the RHX has the potential to reduce heat removal by approximately 30 % at low temperatures and near-solidification conditions. In the case of the prototypical 20 MW reactor with a decay rate of 0.2 MW, RHX extends the freezing time of molten salt by three times, to approximately 18 h. During high-temperature events, such as the initial stages of a reactor scram, the RHX can improve decay heat extraction by 17 %. Other applications of molten salts with similar challenges can also be addressed using the proposed design approach.