Study on the hydraulic performance of the axial flow main coolant pump for lead-cooled fast reactor

Abstract

Lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) has been listed as the most promising fourth-generation reactor type for commercial applications. LFR uses liquid heavy metal, lead or lead–bismuth eutectic alloy (LBE) as the coolant. It has completely different physical parameters such as the density and viscosity from the traditional nuclear reactor coolant, water. Different physical parameters will have anoticeableeffect on the hydraulic performance of the main coolant pump. In this study, based on SST k-w turbulence model, an axial flow main coolant pump in the LFR at multiple working conditions was simulated, and the differences of its hydraulic performance under LBE and water and the reasons were analyzed in detail. Both the head and efficiency of the axial flow pump model under LBE are higher obviously than that under water, and the theoretical head is basically the same under the two mediums. The increase of the head and efficiency under LBE mainly results from the decrease of profile losses in the impeller and guide vane, both the friction loss and losses due to vortices in the boundary layer and wake formation at the outlet of the blade are obviously smaller than that under water.