Heat transfer analysis of heat pipe cooled device with thermoelectric generator for nuclear power application

Abstract

Heat pipe cooled reactor featured with compact structure, high reliability, and inherent safety could be applied for the energy system for multipurpose. Numerical simulation methods are widely used to simulate the normal operating conditions of heat pipe reactors and even for accident conditions. In this paper, the ANSYS Fluent is used to perform thermal calculations on the heat pipe thermoelectric generator (HPTEG) prototype for both normal and accident conditions which include heat pipe failure and loss of heat sink accident conditions. The results show that the numerical simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results, which proves that the fidelity of heat pipe model. Further analyses show that the failure of heat pipe would cause an increase in the power and operating temperature of the adjacent heat pipes, which may increase the possibility of failure of adjacent heat pipes. The maximum core temperature of the HPTEG prototype under the loss of heat sink accident is 1600 K, which exceeds the copper’s melting point temperature 1356 K. It is obvious that the loss of heat sink accident would cause the core temperature increase sharply, which is likely to cause damage to the core. This work provides reference to safety analysis and evaluation of the heat pipe cooled reactor.