Most materials can be easily corroded or ineffective in carbonaceous atmospheres at high temperatures in the reactor core of the high temperature gas-cooled reactor(HTGR).To solve the problem,a material performance test apparatus was built to provide reliable materials and technical support for relevant experiments of the HTGR.The apparatus uses a center high-purity graphite heater and surrounding thermal insulating layers made of carbon fiber felt to form a strong carbon reducing atmosphere inside the apparatus.Specially designed tungsten rhenium thermocouples which can endure high temperatures in carbonaceous atmospheres are used to control the temperature field.A typical experimental process was analyzed in the paper,which lasted 76 hours including seven stages.Experimental results showed the test apparatus could completely simulate the carbon reduction atmosphere and high temperature environment the same as that confronted in the real reactor and the performance of screened materials had been successfully tested and verified.Test temperature in the apparatus could be elevated up to 1600oC,which covered the whole temperature range of the normal operation and accident condition of HTGR and could fully meet the test requirements of materials used in the reactor.
REN ChengYANG Xing TuanLI Cong XinLIU Zhi YongJIANG Sheng Yao
Small reactors have become a new hotspot of international nuclear energy research.The nuclear heating reactor(NHR)technology developed by Tsinghua University is an important multipurpose small reactor solution with features such as high integration,modular design and full power natural circulation.A new small reactor based on the existing NHR-200 reactor was developed by the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology of Tsinghua University.A full-scale natural circulation test loop with the same operating parameters as the actual reactor was built in order to experimentally validate the natural circulation ability of the reactor primary loop and heat-transfer ability of fuel assemblies and heat exchangers.Corresponding results are given in detail,including parameter validation of the reactor primary loop,flow rules of the natural circulation and heat-transfer coefficients of heaters and heat exchangers,which can be directly used in the actual reactor as a reference for optimization design.Finally,a characteristic parameter k is proposed to represent the natural circulation ability of a system.By using the new data arrangement method in the form of parameter k,comprehensive experimental results of the natural circulation can be represented by a simple integrated expression.The work in this paper is of importance in broadening application fields and pushing forward commercialization of the NHR type reactors.
YANG XingTuanREN ChengLIU ZhiYongTU JiYuanJIANG ShengYao
