Xingtuan Yang

Experimental and numerical study of stagnant zones in pebble bed

The experimental method (side area method) and DEM simulation have been carried out to analyse the stagnant zone in the quasi-two-dimensional silos. The side area method is a phenomenological method by means of investigating the interface features of different areas composed of different coloured pebbles. Two methods have been discussed to define the stagnant zone. In particular, the area of the stagnant zone has been calculated with the mean-streamline method, and the tracking time of different marking pebbles has been investigated with the stagnant time method to explore the kinematics characteristics of the pebbles. The stagnant zone is crucial for the safety of the pebble-bed reactor, and the practical reactor core must avoid the existence of the stagnant zone. Furthermore, this paper also analyses the effects of bed configuration (the bed height, the base angle, and the friction coefficient) on stagnant zone with the two methods mentioned above. In detail, the bed height shows little impact on the stagnant zones when the bed height exceeds a certain limit, while the base angle has negative prominent correlation with the stagnant zone. The friction coefficient effect seems complicated and presents the great nonlinearity, which deserves to be deeply investigated.

Numerical Simulation and Analysis of Particle Mixing and Conduction in Wavy Drums

ABSTRACT A thermal discrete element method (DEM) is used to simulate particle mixing and heat conduction inside wavy drums to explore the effects of wavy walls. Sinusoidal configurations with different waves on the walls are simulated. The Lacey mixing index is applied to analyze the mixing characteristics. The driven forces from the wavy wall, either positive/negative or effective driven forces, are analyzed to explain the mechanisms of mixing enhancement in the wavy drum. A new control parameter is proposed to explain the mechanism of mixing enhancement. It is found that a locally oscillating effect exists in wavy drums, which is imparted on the bulk rotating motions of particles and enhances the characteristics of particle mixing and heat conduction significantly. Except over large wave numbers and rotating speeds when the flow regime is deteriorated for mixing, the wavy drum is generally beneficial for mixing augmentation as well as conduction enhancement.

Numerical Analysis of Granular Flows in a Silo Bed on Flow Regime Characterization

The flow characteristics of a gravity-driven dense granular flow in a granular bed with a contracted drainage orifice are studied by using discrete element method and quantitative analysis. Three values of discharging rates, ranging from fast to slow dense flows, are investigated. Time variations and derivatives of mean forces and velocities, as well as their respective correlations, are analyzed to quantitatively depict the characteristics of granular flow as well as flow regime categorization. The auto-correlation functions, as well as their Fourier spectrums, are utilized to characterize the differences between the mechanisms of slow and fast granular flows. Finally, it is suggested that the flow regimes of slow and fast flows can be characterized by the kinetic and kinematic flow properties of particles.

Experimental Research and DEM Simulations on Stagnant Region in Pebble Bed Reactor

In pebble bed reactor, pebbles flow very slowly in the stagnant region, which is defined according to the burn-up level of fuel pebbles. It is not allowed to exist in real reactor, since the stay time of fuel pebbles in these regions goes beyond the burn-up level, which increases the risk of leakage of radiation. This research shows that the stagnant region is related to the geometric parameters of the core and the physical properties of pebbles. Experimental setup has been designed to observe the phenomenon of stagnant region, and analysis based on a phenomenological method has been carried out. The phenomenological method is an approach to study the dense pebble flow by means of investigating the interface features of different areas composed of differently colored pebbles. In addition, additional simulations by the DEM model are in good agreement with the experimental results, which successfully verify the availability of the discrete element method. On the basis of these researches, several key parameters have been investigated through DEM simulations, including height of the experimental setup, friction coefficient between pebbles and base cone angle. It is proved that, the stagnant region existing in the pebble bed can be eliminated by improving the design of pebble bed and the physical properties of fuel pebbles. All of these are very helpful to guide the design of pebble-bed reactor.Copyright

Theoretical and experimental study on single-phase natural circulation under inclined conditions

The natural circulation reactor is widely used in marine environments where thermo-hydraulic performance is heavily affected by the heaving, pitching, and inclining of a ship. This paper theoretically and experimentally investigated steady-state single-phase natural circulation under inclined conditions. Results showed that energy transported by natural circulation was proportional to 1.5 times the power of the temperature difference between the hot leg and the cold leg. Furthermore, a parameter, k, was presented that revealed the comprehensive influence of working fluid properties, resistance characteristics, gravity fields, and loop configurations. k was treated as the criterion for the circulation ability of a loop and it also acted as the basis for evaluating and optimizing different designs. Analysis under the guidance of k was confirmed by a series of experiments performed on a symmetrical two-circuit loop. Both theoretical and experimental results showed that the inclination restrained overall circulation due to the decrease in average altitude difference between the steam generators and the electric heater. The disparity in branch circulations increased with the increase in the inclined angle. A loop design consisting of a large altitude difference and a small width was preferable to confine the influence of inclination. However, if the loop width was too small, it caused a severe reduction in the circulation ability for large angle inclinations.

Some Movement Mechanisms and Characteristics in Pebble Bed Reactor

The pebblebed-type high temperature gas-cooled reactor is considered to be one of the promising solutions for generation IV advanced reactors, and the two-region arranged reactor core can enhance its advantages by flattening neutron flux. However, this application is held back by the existence of mixing zone between central and peripheral regions, which results from pebbles’ dispersion motions. In this study, experiments have been carried out to study the dispersion phenomenon, and the variation of dispersion region and radial distribution of pebbles in the specifically shaped flow field are shown. Most importantly, the standard deviation of pebbles’ radial positions in dispersion region, as a quantitative index to describe the size of dispersion region, is gotten through statistical analysis. Besides, discrete element method has been utilized to analyze the parameter influence on dispersion region, and this practice offers some strategies to eliminate or reduce mixing zone in practical reactors.

Experimental and Numerical Study on Pressure Distribution of 90° Elbow for Flow Measurement

Numerical simulation is performed to investigate the pressure distribution of helium gas under high pressure and high temperature for 10 MW High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR-10). Experimental studies are first conducted on a self-built test system to investigate the static pressure distribution of a 90° elbow and validate the credibility of the computational approach. The 90° elbow is designed and manufactured geometrically the same as HTGR-10. Based on the experimental data, comparison of static pressure of inner wall and outer wall of 90° elbow with numerical results is carried out to verify the numerical approach. With high agreement between experimental results and numerical results of water flowing through 90° elbow, flow characteristics of helium gas under high pressure and high temperature are investigated on the confirmed numerical approach for flow measurement. And wall pressure distribution of eight cross sections of 90° elbow is given in detail to represent the entire region of the elbow.

Experimental investigation of natural circulation in a symmetrical loop under large scale rolling motion conditions

In ocean environment, the ship motion significantly affects the natural circulation behavior in ship-based integrated-type reactor. This paper theoretically and experimentally investigated natural circulation characteristics in symmetrical loops under rolling condition. Experiments were carried out on a test loop with a symmetrical configuration by simulating the structure of an accrual reactor. The theoretical results revealed that only angular acceleration contributes to the resultant force under zero power rolling condition. In a closed circuit with a uniform cross-section area, the angular acceleration force integral is proportional to the angular acceleration and the area enclosed by the circuit. The integral value varies over time and causes flow oscillations. However, the angular acceleration force does not influence the flow status in the shared part of the two symmetrical neighbor circuits due to force interactions. Rolling experiments with a zero power load confirmed these results. Full power experiments under rolling condition exhibited observable flow rate and temperature oscillations in each branch of the flow channel. The oscillations in the side flow channels had the same values for both the period and the phase with the variation of rolling angle. The angular acceleration force was the main cause of this. The oscillations in the middle channel had a period half the value of the rolling period. The periodical variation of the vertical component of gravity caused this. The horizontal component of gravity was out-phasing with angular acceleration. Therefore, it alleviated oscillation in the side channels. The experimental results showed that for the same rolling period, as the rolling angle increased, the average flow rate decreased and oscillation amplitudes increased. Also, as the power load increased, the oscillations in the middle channel increased and the oscillation in the side channel decreased.

A Study on the Instantaneous Turbulent Flow Field in a 90-Degree Elbow Pipe with Circular Section

Based on the special application of 90-degree elbow pipe in the HTR-PM, the large eddy simulation was selected to calculate the instantaneous flow field in the 90-degree elbow pipe combining with the experimental results. The characteristics of the instantaneous turbulent flow field under the influence of flow separation and secondary flow were studied by analyzing the instantaneous pressure information at specific monitoring points and the instantaneous velocity field on the cross section of the elbow. The pattern and the intensity of the Dean vortex and the small scale eddies change over time and induce the asymmetry of the flow field. The turbulent disturbance upstream and the flow separation near the intrados couple with the vortexes of various scales. Energy is transferred from large scale eddies to small scale eddies and dissipated by the viscous stress in the end.

Modeling Effective Thermal Conductivity of Thermal Radiation for Nuclear Packed Pebble Beds

In nuclear packed pebble beds, it is a fundamental task to model effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of thermal radiation. Based on the effective heat transfer cells of structured packing, a short-range radiation model (SRM) and a subcell radiation model (SCM) are applied to obtain analytical results of ETC. It is shown that the SRM of present effective heat transfer cells are in good agreement with the numerical simulations of random packing and it is only slightly higher than empirical correlations when temperature exceeds 1200 °C. In order to develop a generic theoretical approach of modeling ETC, the subcell radiation model is presented and in good agreement with Kunii-Smith correlation, especially at very high temperature ranges (over 1500 °C). Based on SCM, one-dimensional (1D) radial heat transfer model is applied in the analysis of the HTTU experiments. The results of ETC and radial temperature distribution are in good agreement with the experimental data.