Thermohydraulics of Alkaline Liquid-Metal Coolant: A Retrospective-Perspective Look

Abstract

Sixty years of experience in mastering alkaline liquid metals jointly with industry institutes, the Academy of Sciences, and engineering design agencies developing Nuclear Power Facilities (NPF) has culminated in the development of the scientific foundations for their use in nuclear power and the scientific substantiation of the hydraulic parameters and highly efficient technological processes ensuring successful operation of fundamentally new NPF. The primary directions of research were the hydrodynamics of and heat transfer in channels with complicated shapes and in nominal and deformed fuel-rod assemblies, including the blocking of flow sections, and the mechanisms of turbulent heat and mass transfer, interchannel mixing of the coolant, and the hydrodynamics of collector systems in reactors and heat-exchange equipment. Significant attention was devoted to heat exchange in intermediate heat-exchangers and steam generators of reactor facilities and the boiling and condensation of liquid metals. Questions concerning the generalization and experimental thermophysical databases, development of heat pipes, thermophysics of thermionic converters, high-temperature space NPF, and thermonuclear plants were examined. Future studies resulting from the need to improve the safety, cost-effectiveness, and reliability of developed nuclear power facilities are formulated.