Thermal mixing characteristics of helium gas in high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, 1; Thermal mixing behavior of helium gas in HTTR

Tochio, Daisuke; Fujimoto, Nozomu

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 53(3), p.425 - 431, 2016/03

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2015.1054910

The future HTGR is now designed in JAEA. The reactor has many merging points of helium gas with different temperature. It is needed to clear the mixing characteristics of helium gas at the pipe in the HTGR from the viewpoint of structure integrity and temperature control. Previously, the reactor inlet coolant temperature was controlled lower than specific one in the HTTR due to lack of mixing of helium gas in the primary cooling system. Now the control system is improved to use the calculated bulk temperature of reactor inlet helium gas. In this paper, thermal-hydraulic analysis on the primary cooling system of the HTTR was conducted to clarify the mixing behavior of helium gas. As the result, it was confirmed that the mixing behavior of helium gas in the primary cooling system is mainly affected by the aspect ratio of annular flow path, and it is needed to consider the mixing characteristics of helium gas at the piping design of the HTGR.