Abstract
The Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) is one of the candidates of next generation of the nuclear reactors according to IAEA. Predicting the thermohydraulic behavior of High Temperature Reactors (HTR) is an important contribution to the development of this technology. Evaluation of thermohydraulic performance and a comparison with experimental data were proposed to the international research community. The impact of porosity of pebble beds in the thermohydraulic performance in normal operation and under accident condition is the goal of many kinds of research. In this sense, the three-dimensional CFD thermohydraulic simulation of a HTR using ANSYS CFX has been done. The full-scale approach is used to study the influence of different porosity scheme in the main structural materials of the HTR-10 reactor. The porous medium model was used to simulate the pebble bed core zone and the discharge system of pebbles. A comparison with experimental data was made. The steady-state thermohydraulic performance of the HTR-10 reactor at normal operation and anticipated transients without scram (ATWS) tests result, were used. In this work, was possible to estimate the effect of the porosity in the interior regions of the reactor and the impact on the temperature distribution. Finally, the study broadens the knowledge about the impact that the use of variable porosity has on safety analyses in pebble beds reactors.
Highlights
In recent years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) focuses attention on the dependence of fossil fuels in most countries in the world
High Temperature Reactors (HTR)-10 general Information The HTR-10 is a modular reactor where the reactor core is formed by graphite blocks
The nuclear fuel is encapsulated in spherical fuel elements which are piled into a pebble bed core
Summary
The International Energy Agency (IEA) focuses attention on the dependence of fossil fuels in most countries in the world. It was concluded in [1] that more than 80% of global energy production uses fossil fuels. Current energy matrix needs changes, where sources of clean (of non-fossil origin) to come in a stable and secure supply of energy for all. The use of only non-fossil fuel and renewable energy sources for global energy production is currently not possible due to the technological difficulties that these types of sources have. The most favorable alternative is the diversification of currently used energy sources and the increased of known technologies more efficiently and safely ways
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