Design of an experimental loop for post-LOCA heat transfer regimes in a Gas-cooled Fast Reactor

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, 2005.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cochran, Peter A. (Peter Andrew)
Other Authors: Pavel Hejzlar.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2006
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34456
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author Cochran, Peter A. (Peter Andrew)
author2 Pavel Hejzlar.
author_facet Pavel Hejzlar.
Cochran, Peter A. (Peter Andrew)
author_sort Cochran, Peter A. (Peter Andrew)
collection MIT
description Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, 2005.
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spelling mit-1721.1/344562022-01-25T21:40:25Z Design of an experimental loop for post-LOCA heat transfer regimes in a Gas-cooled Fast Reactor Experimental loop for post-Loss of Coolant Accident heat transfer regimes in a GFR Cochran, Peter A. (Peter Andrew) Pavel Hejzlar. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Nuclear Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering Nuclear Engineering. Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, 2005. Includes bibliographical references. The goal of this thesis is to design an experimental thermal-hydraulic loop capable of generating accurate, reliable data in various convection heat transfer regimes for use in the formulation of a comprehensive convection heat transfer correlation. The initial focus of the design is to ensure that the loop will be able to generate the convection flow regimes found in post Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) operation of a Gas-cooled Fast Reactor (GFR). As a result a scaling analysis of the proposed test facility was undertaken to demonstrate that the proposed loop would be able to operate in these aforementioned regimes. Having verified that the experimental loop could operate in the regimes of interest the next stage in the project was construction of the loop. Following construction of the loop and necessary instrumentation, an uncertainty analysis of the facility was conducted with the goal of determining the uncertainty associated with the calculation of heat transfer coefficients from the experimental data. The initial results were discouraging as the uncertainty calculated was large, ranging from -10-60%. After performing a heat transfer coefficient uncertainty analysis, we observed that the bulk of the uncertainty was clue to heat loss from the fluid to the environment. (cont.) Therefore, guard heaters were implemented into the loop design, to match the inner surface temperature of the insulation to the wall temperature of the test section, which allows minimization of heat loss to about zero. This resulted in the considerable reduction in heat transfer coefficient uncertainty to -8-15%. by Peter A. Cochran. S.M. 2006-11-07T12:21:30Z 2006-11-07T12:21:30Z 2005 2005 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34456 70715422 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 85 leaves 3764234 bytes 3767725 bytes application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Nuclear Engineering.
Cochran, Peter A. (Peter Andrew)
Design of an experimental loop for post-LOCA heat transfer regimes in a Gas-cooled Fast Reactor
title Design of an experimental loop for post-LOCA heat transfer regimes in a Gas-cooled Fast Reactor
title_full Design of an experimental loop for post-LOCA heat transfer regimes in a Gas-cooled Fast Reactor
title_fullStr Design of an experimental loop for post-LOCA heat transfer regimes in a Gas-cooled Fast Reactor
title_full_unstemmed Design of an experimental loop for post-LOCA heat transfer regimes in a Gas-cooled Fast Reactor
title_short Design of an experimental loop for post-LOCA heat transfer regimes in a Gas-cooled Fast Reactor
title_sort design of an experimental loop for post loca heat transfer regimes in a gas cooled fast reactor
topic Nuclear Engineering.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34456
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