Abstract
Lead–sCO2 intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) was designed for lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR). The reactor coolant is lead and flowing through a circular straight channel, meanwhile, sCO2 is heated through 5 channels with different geometries were investigated respectively, including straight channel, zigzag 52° channel, S-shaped fins, offset rectangular fins, and airfoil fins. Considering the thermal-hydraulics characteristics, mechanical structure, corrosion, and flow blockage in the IHX designs, the performance, total cost, and power density of several heat exchanger designs were evaluated and compared. Finally, a printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) design using the circular straight (lead) - offset rectangular fins (sCO2) channels was proposed. The straight and S-shaped channels for sCO2 flow were recommended as alternative designs under certain circumstances. However, S-shaped fins and zigzag channels will dramatically increase the cost while straight and airfoil channels will greatly increase the volume.
Highlights
As a Generation IV nuclear reactor system, the leadcooled fast reactors (LFRs) have the advantages of high safety, good economy, and compact structure[1]
LFRs coupling with the supercritical carbon dioxide power cycle is a promising solution for the miniaturization and modularization of nuclear power systems[2]
The printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) is suitable to be applied as an intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) due to the advantages of large heat exchange area per unit volume, high overall heat transfer coefficient, high temperature resistance, and high pressure resistance[3]
Summary
As a Generation IV nuclear reactor system, the leadcooled fast reactors (LFRs) have the advantages of high safety, good economy, and compact structure[1]. Yoon et al.[11] studied different PCHE types of IHXs of both High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) and Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs) and concluded that it is recommended to use zigzag PCHE for IHXs in HTGRs, and use straight PCHE for SFRs in consideration of both thermal-hydraulic performance and cost. Kim et al.[12] evaluated different flow channel PCHEs for FLiNaK to sCO2 heat exchanger in Fluoride salt-cooled High-temperature Reactors (FHRs) and proposed several recommended channel configurations, but no conclusion has been given on which type of channel is more recommended and there are few studies considering thermal-hydraulic performance, mechanical design, and cost assessment of IHXs in LFRs. In this study, we developed a promising design for a lead–sCO2 IHX in LFRs. The thermal-hydraulics, mechanical design, corrosion and blockage issues were considered in the design. The thermal and hydraulic performance, total cost and power density of different type IHXs were evaluated to select the highest performance design
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