Stress Analysis of a High Temperature Heat Exchanger Used in an Advanced Nuclear Reactor

Abstract

This paper presents the stress analysis of the offset strip-fin type compact high temperature heat exchanger for use in the cooling cycle of an advanced nuclear reactor for hydrogen production by the sulfur iodine thermo-chemical cycle. Three different geometry types of heat exchangers were considered: geometry with rectangular fins; geometry with rounded fins and geometry with rounded fins which include manufacturing geometrical effects (fins with roundings on their bases). The material of the heat exchanger is liquid silicon impregnated carbon composite. The two working fluids for the heat exchanger are helium gas and molten salt with maximum temperature about 1000°C. The finite element code ANSYS 9.0 was used for the simulations. The boundary conditions for temperature and pressure were obtained as results of CFD and heat transfer calculations of the heat exchanger using the finite volume code FLUENT 6.1.18 The obtained results will be used for further optimization of the high temperature heat exchanger geometry.