Off-design operation of supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle arranged with single and multiple turbomachinery shafts for lead-cooled fast reactor

Abstract

The lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) engenders novel requisites for the energy conversion system when applied to maritime ships and distributed energy supply systems. The supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) Brayton cycle, with the advantages of high efficiency, space-saving, simplicity, and flexibility, is a promising candidate for LFR. Here, we present the first study on the off-design operation of the sCO2 cycle for LFR, with the turbine and compressor arranged on a single shaft (coaxial-shaft) or two shafts (split-shaft). The off-design performances of the system are investigated using four rotational speed (RS) control-based hybrid control strategies. We showed that the split-shaft system controlled by separate turbine speed and compressor speed has a wider operating space of power load than the coaxial-shaft system. Among the four investigated control strategies, the RS-inventory hybrid control can achieve the best thermal efficiency during load variation by operating at the turbine speed and mass flow rate corresponding to the optimal turbine isentropic efficiency. The maximum operating space of power load (0%–100 %) can be achieved by the RS-turbine inlet pressure hybrid control and the RS-bypass hybrid control. Our study can provide guidance for the flexible and safe part-load operation for small-scale modular Gen-IV nuclear reactors.