Experimental investigation on the heat removal capacity of secondary side passive residual heat removal system for an integrated reactor

Abstract

An experimental facility named Intermediate Heat Exchange Loop (IHEL) is built to simulate the secondary side passive residual heat removal system. The IHEL mainly includes a helically coiled Once-Through Steam Generator (OTSG), a condenser, a cooling water tank, and associated piping and valves. The steam is produced by the water-to-water heat exchange method in the SG secondary side. The heat from the SG primary side is carried to the cooling water tank by the IHEL through a two-phase natural circulation method. The natural circulation characteristics of the IHEL under the low pressure (nearly atmospheric pressure) and low water inventory conditions are investigated. The result shows that the heat removal capacity of the IHEL is good at these conditions, and it is determined by the parameters of the SG primary side and IHEL together. In the present test conditions, for the parameters of the SG primary side, the heat removal rate will increase with the increase of mass flow rate or heat source temperature. For the parameters of the IHEL, the heat removal rate is not sensitive to the initial non-condensable gas content. The heat removal rate is not sensitive to the resistance level when the heat source temperature is low, while it will decrease with the increase of resistance level when the heat source temperature is high. A very meaningful conclusion is that the natural circulation has been established successfully in the very lower water inventory condition (L = 14.8% in the present study), and the heat removal rate almost remains constant with the increase of the water inventory, which indicates the IHEL is robust and is beneficial for the system design.