Fundamental and applied investigations of the liquid-metal cooled fast reactor thermal hydraulics (achieved results and further investigation issues)

Abstract

The results of experimental and computational-theoretical investigations in the area of hydrodynamics and heat transfer of fast reactors and accelerator-driven system with liquid metal coolants are presented, and the problems and tasks for further investigations are formulated. Physical phenomena, effects, laws and process characteristics occurring in reactor power plants, including a flow path and a fast reactor core: the velocity and temperature fields, the structure and characteristics of turbulent transfer of momentum and energy, the hydraulic resistance of channels and fuel rod assemblies, the collector system hydrodynamics, the vibroacoustics, the heat transfer in channels and fuel rod assemblies with liquid metal cooling and inter-channel exchange are considered and analyzed. The data of experimental investigations are presented on a single-tube model of a large-module steam generator and on a fragmentary thermohydraulic model of a steam generator of a reactor power plant with twisted steam-generating tubes operating at subcritical and supercritical water pressure. The results of investigations of temperature and velocity fields on a small-scale water model of a fast reactor vessel with an integral layout in nominal, transient and emergency operating regimes are demonstrated. The investigation results on model of a fast reactor vessel with an integral layout are demonstrated that the effect of thermogravitational forces leads to temperature stratification with stagnant and recirculating formations, internal waves appear at the stratified boundaries, temperature pulsations, thermal fatigue of structural materials and a decrease in the service life of the equipment. It is shown that the liquid metal boiling process in fuel rod assemblies is formed under the influence of various factors, has a complex structure, is characterized by both stable (nucleate, annular-dispersed) and pulsation (slug) regimes with significant fluctuations of technological parameters, which can cause a crisis of heat transfer. Heat transfer was studied, a cartogram two-phase flow was obtained for liquid metal boiling in fuel rod assemblies, the effect of the surface roughness of fuel rods on liquid metal heat transfer and boiling regimes in fuel rod assemblies was found. The possibility of long-term stable cooling of the core during sodium boiling was shown by using “sodium cavity” over the reactor core. The kinetic and mechanical characteristics of the degradation process of the simulated fuel assembly in fast reactor core during the thermal interaction of the uranium-containing simulators of fuel with static sodium and their dependence on the parameters and design system were determined.Information about the key problems of thermophysical investigations of a high-temperature fast reactor with a sodium coolant for the production of hydrogen and reactors cooled by water at supercritical pressure is given.