Coolant Outlet Temperature Research Articles

Advanced Methodology for Simulating Local Operating Conditions in Large Fuel Cells Based on a Spatially Averaged Pseudo-3D Model

Abstract To address the performance and lifetime limitations of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of the operating heterogeneities at the cell scale, requiring the test of a wide range of operating conditions. To avoid experimental constraints, numerical simulations seem to be the most viable option. Hence, there is a need for time-efficient and accurate cell-scale models. In this intention, previous works led to the development and the experimental calibration of a pseudo-3D model of a full-size cell in a stack. To further reduce the computation time, a new spatially averaged, multi-physics, single-phase, non-isothermal, steady state pseudo-3D model is developed and calibrated with the results of the preceding model. Particularly, it captures the influence of the coolant on temperature and water mappings in the cell. Moreover, a new methodology is proposed to calibrate the electrochemical cell voltage law for new membrane-electrode assemblies. The emulation of the local operation conditions in large active surface area is realized with a small differential cell, avoiding the testing of large single cells or stacks. Subsequently, simulations are conducted to investigate the impact of the coolant temperature gradient, coolant outlet temperature and gas relative humidity.

Adaptive fuzzy PI control for the dynamic operation of the transcritical CO2 thermal system in electric vehicles

Process control is essential for ensuring the stable and efficient operation of EVs’ transcritical CO2 thermal management systems. Traditional PI control generally shows an insufficient dynamic response for the variable and complex operating conditions and then causes fluctuant process control. This study proposed an adaptive fuzzy PI control strategy to provide real-time varying PI gains for fast-tracking response and fluctuation suppression, considering the compressor discharge pressure, coolant, and air outlet temperature. A high-fidelity transcritical CO2 thermal model in EVs was first built in the Amesim platform to simulate real-time operation, and the adaptive fuzzy PI control algorithm was then developed to optimize the process control. The co-simulation is conducted to validate the effectiveness and adaptability of the proposed control methodology by comparing it with a benchmark traditional PI control strategy. The results indicated that the proposed adaptive fuzzy PI could provide a 9.22 % overshoot suppression for discharge pressure, a maximal 22.29 % overshoot inhibition and 86 s settling time reduction for the air outlet temperature, and a 25 % settling time reduction for the coolant temperature control. In addition, the fuzzy PI improved the start-up characteristics by avoiding excessive response. Such findings demonstrate that the proposed fuzzy PI control algorithm can effectively optimize the dynamic operation of the transcritical CO2 thermal system in EVs.

Fuzzy Logic-Based Feedwater Controller for the Super Fast Reactor

Abstract Super fast reactor is a Generation IV reactor with water coolant at supercritical pressure. It has advantages of having high efficiency of about 44%, more economical and excellent safety features. Its last core design which adopted one heating in one coolant cycle, however, results a large density change along the fuel channels. It leads to a sensitive steam temperature change against a change of power which might mismatch with the flow change. The sensitivity should be reduced to maintain the structure integrity of the reactor components. A feedwater controller which based on fuzzy logic was used to reduce the sensitivity. Method of fuzzy-based control is applied. Two signals of the temperature and the power changes were taken as the inputs of the fuzzy controller, and change of the feedwater coolant flow was taken as the control output. Fuzzifications used triangular member functions with Tsukamoto fuzzy model for inferencing process. Two control parameters of member function spread and signal values which lead to fuzzy degree of 1 were optimized so that the criteria of outlet coolant temperature and the stability were fulfilled. Test results of the control system showed that the deviation of the water temperature at outlet side could be kept within the criteria when mismatch change of power and water flow happened. The temperature deviation could be supressed by using the fuzzy-based control.

Thermodynamic analysis of a modified two-stage transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle with an ejector and a subcooler

In the application scope of large-scale supermarkets, the practicality of transcritical CO2 refrigeration device has been confirmed to be quite satisfying. A modified two-stage transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle with an ejector and a subcooler (MTC) is proposed in this paper. In the modified cycle, the ejector recovers expansion works and reduces irreversible losses in the throttling process. The subcooler provides subcooling degree for the CO2 entering the low-temperature (LT) evaporator, thus increasing the refrigeration capacity and improving the COP of the modified cycle. Thermodynamic analysis has shown that the exergy efficiency (ηex) and COP of MTC under given operating condition has been enhanced by 13.7 % and 14.2 % compared to BTC. The discharge temperature at the outlet of high-pressure compressor in MTC is decreased by 8.3℃. Under typical operating condition, the optimal discharge pressure of MTC is 9.07 MPa, which is lower than that of BTC. The correlation to calculate optimal discharge pressure for single-stage CO2 refrigeration cycle is also suitable for MTC under given operating conditions. The MTC has also shown better performance under variable operating conditions. For MTC, when the temperature at the outlet of gas cooler increases from 35 – 45℃, the COP and ηex are enhanced by 14.1 % - 16.1 % and 12.8 % - 14.2 % compared to BTC, respectively. When gas cooler outlet pressure decreases from 11.0 to 7.5 MPa, the COP and ηex are enhanced by 14.0 % - 22.8 % and 13.4 % - 18.7 %. As the evaporating temperature at the cold side of subcooler increases from -25 to -15℃, the COP and ηex increase from 1.82 to 1.98 and 27.4 % to 29.7 %. With the ratio of refrigeration capacity (Rec) between medium-temperature evaporator and low-temperature evaporator varies from 0.7 to 1.2, the COP and ηex are improved by 10.7 % - 16.3 % and 10.7 % - 15.4 % compared to BTC. There is the maximum exergy loss at gas cooler in the MTC, whereas that of BTC is located in the expansion valve before LT evaporator. The economic analysis shows the cost per unit of exergy of MTC is decreased by 11.5 % under typical operation condition. According to simulation results, the modified cycle has better performance in severe working conditions such as high gas cooler outlet temperature and low gas cooler outlet pressure in the given range of working conditions compared to BTC.

Experimental investigation of enhanced CO2 refrigeration systems at varying operating condi-tions

The efficiency of a CO2 refrigeration system depends mainly on the operating conditions and the system design. To increase the energy efficiency, advanced system designs include additional components and their combinations such as parallel compression, ejectors, and expansion machines. For a direct comparison of different system designs, measurements were performed on an advanced CO2 laboratory refrigeration system at different operating conditions. The system behaviour was investigated at different gas cooler outlet temperatures, varying cooling loads, different evaporation temperatures and amounts of superheating. The results of the measurements performed on a baseline system configuration and advanced system designs are presented. It was observed that the influence of operating conditions is less important for certain measures in terms of efficiency improvement than for others. For each system design, operating conditions were identified under which a particularly advantageous behaviour of the respective measures was found. In the future, this will allow the judgment of the efficiency enhancement of each of different respective features for each individual application.

Heat transfer characteristics of vertical condensers under unsteady boundary conditions: Dynamic modeling, experiment validation, and parametric analysis

A dynamic model has been developed to predict the coupled heat transfer characteristics of vertical condensers under varying boundary conditions. The model predictions closely matched the experimental data, with normalized mean bias error and root mean square error metrics below 3%. It was observed that variations in the inlet temperature of the secondary-side coolant did not immediately affect the outlet coolant temperature, exhibiting a noticeable lag phase before gradually adjusting to new conditions. Even after the inlet coolant stabilized, the outlet coolant temperature continued to rise until reaching a steady state after a defined period. The dynamic changes in the condensate film thickness and local heat flux density were categorized into three stages: lag, transitional, and steady. These stages showed differing response and transition times across various locations of the condenser. The bottom of the condenser pipeline demonstrated the shortest response time for condensate film thickness variation but the longest transition time. Additionally, the study investigated the influence of geometric parameters on the dynamic response characteristics of condensers. It was found that longer condenser tubes, lower wall thermal diffusivity, and thicker condensing walls resulted in extended transition times for condensate mass flow at the condenser bottom.

Refrigerant charge influence on the performance of a transcritical CO2 system with flash-tank for low-temperature refrigeration

While the use of CO2 as a natural refrigerant become widespread, there is a scarcity of research on refrigerant charge effects in transcritical CO2 refrigeration applications, especially for systems with flash-tank and two-stage compressors. In this work, an experimental investigation of the effect of the Normalized Refrigerant Charge (NRC) on the parameters and performance of a Flash-Tank Vapor Injection (FTVI) CO2 refrigeration system is carried out. Within the explored NRC range of −0.02 to 0.247, an optimal NRC of 0.18 was identified that yields a maximum COP regardless of operating conditions. Results suggest that typical operating parameters such as temperature and pressure are not being affected by the NRC because of the charge buffering function of the flash-tank. However, the liquid–vapor separation capacity of the flash-tank causes a reduction in the refrigeration capacity when the system is not charged properly. This refrigeration capacity detriment related to undercharged conditions becomes more severe under high ambient temperatures, with a maximum COP penalty of 20 % when comparing the lowest charge versus the optimal charge performances at a gas cooler outlet temperature of 40 °C.

Machine learning modeling for fuel cell-battery hybrid power system dynamics in a Toyota Mirai 2 vehicle under various drive cycles

Electrification is considered essential for the decarbonization of mobility sector, and understanding and modeling the complex behavior of modern fuel cell-battery electric-electric hybrid power systems is challenging, especially for product development and diagnostics requiring quick turnaround and fast computation. In this study, a novel modeling approach is developed, utilizing supervised machine learning algorithms, to replicate the dynamic characteristics of the fuel cell-battery hybrid power system in a 2021 Toyota Mirai 2nd generation (Mirai 2) vehicle under various drive cycles. The entire data for this study is collected by instrumenting the Mirai vehicle with in-house data acquisition devices and tapping into the Mirai controller area network bus during chassis dynamometer tests. A multi-input - multi-output, feed-forward artificial neural network architecture is designed to predict not only the fuel cell attributes, such as average minimum cell voltage, coolant and cathode air outlet temperatures, but also the battery hybrid system attributes, including lithium-ion battery pack voltage and temperature with the help of 15 system operating parameters. Over 21,0000 data points on various drive cycles having combinations of transient and near steady-state driving conditions are collected, out of which around 15,000 points are used for training the network and 6,000 for the evaluation of the model performance. Various data filtration techniques and neural network calibration processes are explored to condition the data and understand the impact on model performance. The calibrated neural network accurately predicts the hybrid power system dynamics with an R-squared value greater than 0.98, demonstrating the potential of machine learning algorithms for system development and diagnostics.

Genetic algorithm-based optimization of combined supercritical CO2 power and flash-tank enhanced transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle for shipboard waste heat recuperation

The shipping industry significantly contributes to global trade and economy, but is also responsible for approximately ∼3 % of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Harnessing waste heat from marine vessels to perform useful work is a potential solution to reduce these emissions. Although the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) and CO2 cycles have been studied separately for waste heat recovery, a combined power and refrigeration systems, utilizing both cycles have not been reported. Herein, a combined system, “Marine Energy Recovery System (MERS)”, that integrates the supercritical CO2 Brayton power cycle with a flash-tank-enhanced transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle, is proposed, aiming to generate power and provide cooling simultaneously. The power cycle incorporates an ORC, and a flash-tank is introduced within the refrigeration cycle to improve system performance. Both cycles share a low-temperature recuperator and a gas cooler to further utilize the heat between them. The MERS is evaluated from both a 1st and 2nd law perspective against various performance metrics under different operating conditions, such as: gas cooler pressure, evaporation temperature, and turbine inlet temperature and pressure. Results elucidated that the MERS achieved energy and exergy efficiencies of 54.62 % and 54.90 %, respectively, representing significant improvements over similar systems. The net work output improved by 717.55 kW and the net cooling capacity by 515.7 kW relative to the reference system. Furthermore, a COP of 2.99 outlines its potential as a cooling system. To further enhance MERS’s performance, a multi-objective optimization approach is employed, utilizing Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Genetic Algorithm (GA). Optimal operational conditions yielded an energy efficiency of 74.95 % while maintaining a net work output of 6890.55 kW with gas cooler pressure, turbine inlet temperature, and gas cooler outlet temperature being 9.5 MPa, 461.76°C and 50°C respectively. These findings support the reliability and improved design of the MERS for future marine applications.

Thermal-hydraulic characterization of a 50-kW medicinal-aimed aqueous homogeneous reactor (MAHR)

This paper analyses the thermal–hydraulic performance of a proposed 50-kW aqueous homogeneous reactor (AHR) aimed at producing Mo-99. The reactor thermal–hydraulic characteristics are analyzed using ANSYS-FLUENT software and Relap code, and the results are validated through experiments conducted by a prototypic cylindrical sector of the reactor vessel. Boundary conditions in the CFD simulation are set up based on Relap modelling, while CFD outputs are validated by experimental results achieved using the laboratory model. Then, various parameters, including coolant mass flow rate, first cycle pipe diameter, coolant outlet temperature, average fuel solution temperature, and the elevation difference between the reactor and heat exchanger, are optimized using the least-squares optimization method. Results demonstrate that the heat removal system provides sufficient cooling capacity to ensure stable operation of the proposed AHR core by preventing fuel solution overheating and, consequently, boiling (void formation) in the active fuel solution.

Development of a MELCOR Model for LVR-15 Severe Accidents Assessment

LVR-15 is a light-water-tank-type research reactor placed in a stainless-steel vessel under a shielding cover located in the Research Centre Rez (CVR) near Prague. It is operated at a steady-state power of up to 10 MWt under atmospheric pressure and is cooled by forced circulation. In 2011, the fuel was replaced, going from high-enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium (LEU). After 2017, the State Office for Nuclear Safety (SUJB) asked CVR to evaluate the LVR-15 under Design Extended Conditions B (DEC-B). For this reason, a new model was developed in the MELCOR code, which allows for modelling the progression of a severe accident (SA) in light-water nuclear power plants and estimating the behaviour of the reactor under SA conditions. The model was built by collecting information about the LVR-15. Since the research reactor can have different core configurations according to the location of the core components, the core configuration with the most fuel (hottest campaign K221) was selected. Then, to create the radial nodalisation, the details of the core components were obtained and grouped in five radial rings and 27 axial levels. The simulation was run with the boundary conditions collected from campaign K221, and the results were compared with the reference values of the campaign with a negligible percentage of error. For the coolant inlet and outlet temperature, the reference values were 318.18 K and 323.5 K, respectively, while for the simulation, the steady state reached 319 K for the inlet temperature and 324 K for the outlet temperature. Additionally, the cladding temperature of the hottest assembly was compared with the reference value (353.72 K) and the steady-state simulation results (362 K). In future work, different transients leading to severe accidents will be simulated. When simulating the LVR-15 reactor with MELCOR, specific attention is required for the aluminium-cladded fuel assemblies, as the model requires some assumptions to cope with the phenomenological limitations.

Thermodynamic analysis of rotary pressure exchanger and ejectors for CO2 refrigeration system

Natural refrigerant CO2 has become a viable choice for refrigeration units for land-based and offshore applications due to its environment-friendly nature and compactness. The CO2 transcritical cycle allows operating in colder climates and in elevated ambient temperature conditions and with significant heat recovery. However, the energy efficiency of the system suffers at higher heat rejection conditions mainly due to expansion losses. This work theoretically investigates and proposes the implementation of a new expansion work recovery device, a pressure exchanger (CO2-PX), for the transcritical CO2 cycle. The numerical models are developed in the Engineering Equation solver (EES) to compare the performance of CO2-PX configuration with standard booster-, parallel-, and ejector- configurations for various conditions. The analysis is carried out for the evaporation temperature of 0 ℃ and the gas cooler outlet temperature of 33 ℃ to 37 ℃. The results indicate that the coefficient of performance (COP) is improved by 17.7–23.5%, 16.3–20.3%, and 2.4–5.5% to the standard booster, parallel and ejector configurations, respectively, at the investigated conditions.

Transient analysis of temperature field and fission gas about the arc plate fuel element

Obtaining the temperature field and fission gas release of fuel elements are crucial to the study on fuel behaviors and ensure the safety of elements. In order to enhance fuel efficiency, providing a design idea to make the fast reactor with high flux and multi-function, we have designed a core of the lead-based fast reactor with arc plate fuel elements. Based on above, a transient performance analysis program of arc plate fuel elements (TPAPAFE) was developed in this paper, for analyzing the thermal and fission gas module of arc plate fuel element by calculating transient variation in the maximum pellet temperature, internal and external coolant outlet temperature, and fission gas release share. The modular verification was done by comparing the results of TPAPAFE with others. Besides, the result of the arc plate fuel analyzed by TPAPAFE shows that the code is feasible and rational, and the single arc plate is so thin that coolant outlet temperatures on both sides of the plate are almost the same. Meanwhile, the error in temperature data between TPAPAFE and the steady-state program is only 5%. Furthermore, fission gas release fraction increased linearly with pellet temperature and bubble growth.

Effect of varying the thermophysical properties of phase change material on the performance of photovoltaic/thermal-PCM hybrid module numerically

The present investigation uses ANSYS-Fluent to establish a three-dimensional computational model to examine the impact of varying thermophysical properties of phase change material on photovoltaic/thermal system performance. A merit function is employed to determine the impact of varying the PCM thermophysical properties on the system to assess the economic feasibility of a proposed PV/T-PCM setup. The findings indicate that, despite the coolant discharge temperature appearing to be somewhat greater for the PV/T-PCM layout than for the PV/T design, the average PV surface temperature seems to be lower for the PV/T-PCM module. Additionally, the coolant outlet temperature dramatically improves with elevating the PCM melting temperature and thermal conductivity. When the latent heat of PCM elevates from 80 to 240 kJ/kg, the thermal and total energy efficiencies for the PV/T-PCM structure decline from 60.8 to 49.2 % and 72.6 to 61 %, respectively. Moreover, boosting the PCM melting temperature and thermal conductivity, respectively, from 305 to 323 K and 0.1 to 0.5 W/m.K dramatically enhances the total energy efficiency by about 13 and 10 %. It is found that varying the PCM melting temperature has a significantly greater impact on the total energy efficiency of PV/T-PCM module than that for the latent heat of fusion and thermal conductivity, where the total energy efficiency marginally increases from about 47.5 to 77.75 %, when boosting the PCM melting temperature from 305 to 323 K. With increasing the melting temperature and the thermal conductivity of the PCM, the heat to electricity ratio and the merit function value are significantly enhanced for the PV/T-PCM layout.

New RMC Energy Deposition Treatment and its Application in Multi-Physics Simulation

Accurate estimation of energy deposition is important in core physics and severe accident analyses for design optimizations. In this study, a new energy deposition treatment is implemented in the Reactor Monte Carlo (RMC) code, offering multiple modes with varying levels of fidelity and computational requirements. The most precise mode is utilized in coupling simulations between RMC and the subchannel thermal-hydraulic analysis code SUBCHAN, incorporating an explicit moderator heating fraction in the coupling interface. The new treatment is verified against references from MCNP, Serpent, and OpenMC for three light water reactor (LWR) assembly cases, and great agreement is achieved. Energy deposition in different materials and components is emphasized in Kilowatt Reactor Using Stirling TechnologY (KRUSTY) modeling, and the results obtained using different modes are compared. The RMC-SUBCHAN coupling calculations for the three LWR assembly cases, employing the most accurate model, reveal a maximum increase of 94.6 K in the control rod centerline temperature, with a normalized energy deposition of 35.9% in the control rod regions. In the assembly case with gadolinium (Gd) burnable poison, a temperature increase of 7.3 K is observed in the Gd rod centerline, while the coolant outlet temperature decreases by 1.6 K due to the reduced explicit moderator heating fraction of 2.1%, compared to the constant 2.6% in the previous coupling scheme.

Towards sustainable process heating at 250 °C: Modeling and optimization of an R1336mzz(Z) transcritical High-Temperature heat pump

Fossil fuel boilers typically produce high-temperature process heating due to the impossibility of current renewable technologies. Vapour compression heat pump systems have been proposed up to 200 °C with subcritical cycles. To increase the heating production level, this paper proposes heating up to 250 °C through a transcritical high-temperature heat pump (THTHP) using R1336mzz(Z), which is not thermally degraded till this temperature, according to existing data. Computational models of a transcritical vapor compression cycle with and without an internal heat exchanger are developed for this work. The input cycle parameters, such as evaporation, production temperature, gas cooler output temperature, and the superheating degree, have been modified through iteration to consider possible scenarios in different industrial sectors. Moreover, the impact of using waste heat to increase evaporation temperature or superheating degree has been studied to optimize the cycle. The internal heat exchanger has also been considered for superheating the compressor suction. Other relevant parameters, such as compression ratio or volumetric mass flow rate, have also been assessed. The results show that a heat pump is feasible to reach 250 °C temperature using waste heat at 120 °C (evaporation at 100 °C and 20 °C of superheating degree), reaching a COP of 3.3. The variation of evaporator temperature from 80 °C to 140 °C increases COP from 2.5 to 5.9, while the increase of superheating degree from 20 °C to 100 °C increases COP from 3.2 to 7. Waste heat use optimization proves that it is more efficient to prioritize the increase of the evaporation temperature. If the industry requires lower production temperatures, the COP can reach a value of 7.0 at 180 °C. The decrease in gas cooler outlet temperature impacts less the COP than other input parameters. At baseline conditions, an optimum superheating degree with an internal heat exchanger of 45 K produces a maximum COP of 4.0. THTHP emissions are less than gas boilers for the same application, and in countries with greener electricity generation, these emissions can be 50 times lower.

Study on the mechanism of the optimal discharge pressure for a transcritical CO2 system

The optimal discharge pressure is the essential factor affecting the operating performance of the transcritical CO2 system. This paper presents a detailed study on the mechanism of the optimal discharge pressure from the perspective of fixed gas cooler outlet temperature and the heat transfer pinch point. The fixed gas cooler outlet temperature mainly analyzes the mechanism of the optimal discharge pressure from the enthalpy difference of isotherm in the supercritical region. The heat transfer pinch point mainly analyses the optimal discharge pressure at low inlet water temperatures, in which the subcritical region close to the critical point is considered. The effect of different parameters on optimal discharge pressure and system performance is discussed. The results indicate that the unique CO2 physical properties and the pinch point in the gas cooler cause the optimal discharge pressure of the transcritical CO2 system. The physical properties mainly affect the optimal discharge pressure at the high inlet water temperature, while the pinch point mainly affects the optimal discharge pressure at the low inlet water temperature. The inlet and outlet water temperatures are the most significant factors affecting the system's performance.

Transient analysis of the safety characteristics on a super carbon-dioxide cooled micro modular reactor

The supercritical CO2 (S-CO2) demonstrates great potential as a coolant for nuclear reactors due to its low critical pressure and temperature. It offers improved thermal efficiency and decreased requirements for structural materials. By incorporating core physics models and updated thermal–hydraulic models, the SYST-SCO2 code developed in prior research has been enhanced and utilized for conducting transient safety analysis on the micro modular reactor (MMR) proposed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). The analyzed transients include the Unprotected Loss of Flow Accident (ULOFA), Unprotected Reactivity Insertion Accident (URIA), Unprotected Loss of Heat Sink (ULOHS), Unprotected Over Cooling (UOC), and the Protected Loss of Flow Accident (PLOFA). It is found that the MMR experiences the exceeding of coolant outlet temperature limit of 676℃ in the ULOFA for over 155 s. With the reactor shutdown system put into operation, the reactor core can be maintained to operate with the fuel pellet, cladding and coolant temperatures below their limits respectively in the LOFA. Enough safety margin can be left for the MMR reactor core in URIA, ULOHS and UOC transients. Among the safety limits for the fuel and coolant, the core outlet temperature limit is the easiest to reach in the analyzed accidents.

Theoretical investigation of a novel distributed compression cycle for CO2 trans-critical system

Efficient cooling of the trans-critical CO2 vapor compression cycle to improve system performance is a crucial research topic. This paper proposes an innovative approach called distribution compression (DC) to achieve the same effect as subcooling in a trans-critical CO2 thermodynamic cycle. In the DC system, the trans-critical CO2 at the gas cooler outlet is no longer further cooled but subjected to a secondary pressure boost and releases heat in ordinary heat sink conditions as in the gas cooler. Thermodynamics calculated the change in performance of the DC system under different working conditions with different secondary boost ratios. The optimal secondary boost ratio related to evaporation and gas cooler outlet temperatures under optimal discharge pressure based on the baseline system was obtained. The results show that compared with the baseline system, the DC system can effectively improve the system performance, and the maximum refrigeration COP increase is between 8.2 % ∼ 10.76 %, and the maximum heating COP increase is between 5.37 % ∼ 6.34 %. The cooling or heating capacity increase can reach up to about 26 %. The ideal secondary boost ratio in a DC system is not highly demanding, and the increased input power for the second input power for the secondary boost will not exceed 20 % relative to the baseline system. Comparing the COP of the DC system over current systems that only use a single subcooling technology still shows advantages. The DC system provides a new idea to improve the performance of the trans-critical CO2 vapor compression cycle.

Sub-channel analysis for LBE cooled fuel assembly with grid type spacers of China initiative accelerator driven system

The present study focuses on the thermal hydraulic characteristics of fuel assemblies in the China Initiative Accelerator Driven subcritical System (CiADS), which utilizes grid-type spacers to support lead bismuth eutectic (LBE) cooled fast reactors. While the structural design and mechanical analysis of CiADS triangular fuel assemblies with grid-type spacers have been preliminarily investigated, there is a pressing need to study the thermal hydraulic behavior of liquid LBE within these fuel assemblies. This analysis is crucial for assessing the safety and economy of the CiADS subcritical reactor. The sub-channel analysis code, based on the lumped parameter method, plays a vital role in rapidly evaluating the safety features of LBE-cooled fast reactor fuel assemblies. To comprehensively evaluate the thermal hydraulic performance of fuel assemblies with grid-type spacers in the CiADS LBE cooling system, the flow pressure drop model, turbulent mixing model, and convective heat transfer model for the fuel assembly structure with grid-type spacers were incorporated into the existing CiADS sub-channel analysis code. This enhanced code has been successfully employed in the thermal hydraulic analysis of fuel assemblies utilizing wire-type spacers in the CiADS system. To verify the validity and accuracy of the modified CiADS sub-channel analysis code in calculating triangular fuel assemblies with grid-type spacers, the code was first utilized to replicate a 19-rods flow heat transfer experiment with grid-type spacers cooling liquid LBE. A comparison between the simulation and experimental results confirms that the CiADS sub-channel analysis code can predict the coolant temperature and fuel rod surface temperature in fuel assemblies with grid-type spacers. Subsequently, the structure and thermal hydraulic design of the latest CiADS fuel assembly with grid-type spacers were reviewed. Finally, taking into account the aforementioned enhancements to the CiADS sub-channel analysis code, a comprehensive thermo-hydraulic calculation of the CiADS fuel assembly with grid-type spacers was conducted. The results demonstrate that the coolant outlet temperature, maximum cladding temperature, and maximum fuel pellet temperature all fall within the design parameters of CiADS. Furthermore, the impact of the number of rods in different rod bundles (91, 61, 37, and 7 rods) on thermal hydraulic performance was analyzed. The findings indicate that, while ensuring calculation accuracy and efficiency, the results obtained from the 37-rod bundle can effectively reflect the thermal hydraulic behavior of the reactor core.