Experimental study on prevention of high cycle thermal fatigue at the core outlet of advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor; Characteristics of temperature fluctuations and countermeasures to mitigate temperature fluctuations at a bottom of upper internal structure

Kobayashi, Jun; Aizawa, Kosuke; Ezure, Toshiki; Nagasawa, Kazuyoshi*; Kurihara, Akikazu; Tanaka, Masaaki

JAEA-Research 2022-009, 125 Pages, 2023/01

JAEA-Research-2022-009.pdf:29.22MB

The design studies of an advanced loop-type sodium-cooled fast reactor (Advanced- SFR) have been carried out by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). At the core outlet, temperature fluctuations occur due to mixing of hot sodium from the fuel assembly with cold sodium from the control rod channels and radial blanket assembly. These temperature fluctuations may cause high cycle thermal fatigue around a bottom of Upper Internal Structure (UIS) located above the core. Therefore, we conducted a water experiment using a 1/3 scale 60 degree sector model that simulated the upper plenum of the advanced loop-type sodium-cooled reactor. And we proposed some countermeasures against large temperature fluctuations that occur at the bottom of the UIS. In this report, we have summarized that the effect of the countermeasure structure to mitigate the temperature fluctuation generated at the bottom of UIS is confirmed, and the Reynolds number dependency of the countermeasure structure and the characteristics of the temperature fluctuation on the control rod surface.

Water experiments on thermal striping phenomena at the core outlet of an advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor, 2; Proposal of countermeasures to mitigate temperature fluctuations around radial blanket fuel assemblies

Kobayashi, Jun; Aizawa, Kosuke; Ezure, Toshiki; Kurihara, Akikazu; Tanaka, Masaaki

Hozengaku, 20(3), p.97 - 101, 2021/10

Focusing on the thermal striping phenomena that occurs at a bottom of the internal structure of an advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor (Advanced-SFR) that has been designed by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, a water experiment using a 1/3 scale 60 degree sector model simulating the upper plenum of the Advanced-SFR has been conducted to examine countermeasures for the significant temperature fluctuation generated around the bottom of Upper Internal Structure (UIS). In the previous paper, we reported the effect of measures to mitigate temperature fluctuations around the control rod channels. In this paper, the same test section was used, and a water experiment was conducted to obtain the characteristics of temperature fluctuations around the radial blanket fuel assembly. And the shape of the Core Instrumentation Support Plate (CIP) was modified, and it was confirmed that it was highly effective in alleviating temperature fluctuations around the radial blanket fuel assembly.

Proposal of benchmark problem of thermal striping phenomena in planar triple parallel jets tests for fundamental code validation in sodium-cooled fast reactor development

Kobayashi, Jun; Tanaka, Masaaki; Ohno, Shuji; Ohshima, Hiroyuki; Kamide, Hideki

Proceedings of 16th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-16) (USB Flash Drive), p.6664 - 6677, 2015/08

Numerical simulation is recognized an essential tool for the physical phenomena analysis and plant design study of a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR). In order to enhance credibility of the numerical results in the activities for plant design by using numerical simulations, it is recognized that verification and validation (V&V) process is very important. In this study, experiments for planar triple parallel jets mixing phenomena conducted in JAEA were proposed as benchmark problems for the code validation in the area of thermal striping study in the SFR development.