Thermalhydraulic Concepts

Drafted by Bill Garland

1. Basics / Phenomena level
   1. Nomenclature
   2. General conservation equation
   3. Mass balance
   4. Momentum balance
   5. Energy balance
   6. Equation of state
   7. Macroscopic vs microscopic (lumped vs distributed)
   8. Heat transfer
      1. Conduction
      2. Convection
         1. forced
         2. free
      3. Radiation
   9. Fluid mechanics
      1. Friction and pressure drop
      2. Potential flow
      3. Viscous flow
         1. Velocity profiles
         2. turbulence
      4. Compressible flow (gas)
      5. Flow measurement
      6. Boundary conditions
      7. Correlations
   10. Two-phase flow
       1. Models
       2. Flow regimes
       3. Boiling
          1. Pool
          2. Convective
       4. Condensation
2. Modelling level
   1. Node-link form for systems
   2. Distributed form for components
3. Components level
   1. Fuel - coolant heat transfer - notes from EP716, part I, chapter 5, text (pdf 121 kb), slides (pdf 276kb)
      1. Overview
      2. General heat conduction equation
      3. Plates
      4. Radial heat transfer (pins)
         1. fuel
         2. gap
         3. sheath
         4. coolant
         5. overall delta T
      5. General thermal energy equation
      6. Axial temperature distribution
      7. Axial quality distribution
      8. Critical heat flux
   2. Fuel
      1. Metallurgical considerations
      2. Possible fuels (U, Th, Pu, ...)
      3. Metal vs ceramic
      4. Plates vs pins
      5. Brook's summary
   3. Feeders
      1. NUCIRC
      2. Sizing
      3. Layout
      4. Creep allowances
   4. Endfittings
   5. Headers
      1. Sizing
      2. Flow distribution
   6. Pumps
      1. Sizing
      2. NPSH
      3. Head-flow curve
      4. 4 quadrant characteristics
   7. Heat exchangers
   8. Steam generators
      1. Sizing
      2. Integral or separate preheater
      3. Recirculation
      4. Material selection
      5. Costing
      6. Area margin
   9. Valves
      1. Types and characteristics
      2. Equations
      3. Sizing
      4. Standards
   10. Pressure vessels
       1. Standards
       2. relief valve sizing
   11. Measurement devices
       1. Flow
          1. orifice
          2. ultrasonic
       2. Temperature
          1. RTD
          2. thermocouple
       3. Pressure
       4. Level
4. Heat Transport System
   1. How does it work?
      1. Simple circuit and heat balance
      2. Flow operating point - pump head vs flow and losses vs flow
      3. Simple equations
      4. Simple heat duty diagram
      5. Solutions to simple case
         1. flow approximately constant
         2. primary T floats on top of the secondary T
         3. secondary side governed by SS P
         4. variation with power
      6. HTS efficiency vs thermodynamic efficiency
      7. PIC
      8. Control and transient behaviour
   2. An ideal HTS
      1. Low P, high T
      2. Coolant cheap, stable to P, T and radiation, non corrosive
      3. Hign heat capacity
      4. High conductivity
      5. Moderator properties
      6. Low friction
      7. Gord Brooks' paper
   3. Design considerations
      1. Variations on a theme (# of pumps, layout, figure of 0, 8, split core in Bruce, ...)
      2. Layout for thermosyphoning
      3. Pump downstream of the SG for NPSH considerations
      4. Boiling on primary side
         1. incentives
         2. problems
            1. swell and shrink
            2. instabilities
               1. figure of 8
               2. ledinegg
               3. ...
      5. Water hammer
      6. Resonant pressure waves (as per Darlington fuel breakup problem)
      7. Limitations
         1. pump size
         2. SG size
         3. core size
         4. velocity
            1. erosion
            2. corrosion
            3. fretting
         5. steam quality and void fraction
         6. CHF and CPR
         7. D2O holdup
         8. creep (axial and radial)
      8. Measurements
      9. Optimization
         1. AESOP equations and procedure
         2. pipe sizing
      10. Feeder layout
      11. SG sizing
      12. Control
      13. Simulation
          1. tools
          2. runs
             1. steady state
             2. power run up - overpressure protection
             3. trips
             4. Class IV power failure
             5. ...
          3. verification and validation
      14. Evolution and legacy
      15. Exploration of alternate designs
          1. H2O coolant
          2. organic coolant
          3. common moderator / coolant
          4. fuel design is low pressure - pins still needed?
   4. Safety analysis (focus on how design relates to safety)
      1. DBA
      2. LOCA
      3. LOR
      4. Loss of flow
      5. Flow blockage
      6. Human factors
   5. Commissioning
      1. Code lockon
         1. flow
         2. heat transfer
   6. Operation
      1. Normal
      2. Upset
      3. Accident
      4. Fault diagnosis and response