Numerical simulation of high temperature sodium heat pipe for passive heat removal in nuclear reactors

Abstract

High temperature heat pipes offer an efficient way of heat removal in nuclear reactors under both normal operation and postulated accidental scenarios. Heat pipes with sodium as a working fluid has been proposed to be used in Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR), 233U-Thorium fuelled reactor being designed to operate at 1000°C. High temperature heat pipes can also be used for decay heat removal from dump tanks of molten salt breeder reactor and heat removal from first wall of fusion reactors. High temperature heat pipes of special construction can also be used for heat removal from core without use of coolant. Thus, reliable and long term operation of heat pipes is essential for the safe working of the reactor. In this respect, computer codes have been developed for design and simulation of high temperature heat pipes. To assist in the design stages, codes have been developed, which incorporate performance limits based on correlations and having a user friendly GUI. For system level studies, simplified heat transfer model is developed using a FEM model. For a detailed study of the heat pipe, the vapour flow behavior and interface evaporation condensation phenomena using a full CFD analysis is essential. This has been done by using a commercial CFD code by incorporating user defined functions (UDFs) which address the saturated nature of the vapour phase and the vapour wick interface conditions. A three dimensional transient numerical model has been developed to predict the vapour core, wall temperatures, vapour pressure, and vapour velocity in the screen mesh wick of sodium heat pipe. The results have been compared using a sodium heat pipe developed in-house. This paper will give an outline of all the developed models and compared the predicted results against the experimental data.