HTGR Upper Plenum Natural Circulation Facility

One major accident of interest in the High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors is the Pressurized Conduction Cooldown (PCC) scenario. The PCC scenario results in a loss of forced convection to the core, while the loop stays pressurized since there is no breach in the boundary. The coolant flows through the core driven by buoyancy forces. Experimental data is needed to validate the performances of CFD codes.

An experimental facility representing the core and upper plenum of a HTGR has been designed and constructed to perform natural circulation experiments.  The test sections include multiple vertical heated channels representing the coolant flow paths within a typical prismatic core design. Channels are independently heated.

Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) techniques are being applied.

 

• Anas Alwafi, Thien Nguyen, Yassin Hassan, and N. K. Anand, “Time-resolved particle image velocimetry measurements of a single impinging jet in the upper plenum of a scaled facility of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors,” International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, Vol. 76, pp. 113 129, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatfluidflow.2019.02.003

• Alwafi, D.T. Nguyen, Y. Hassan, N.K. Anand, Investigation of the flow near the wall of a single impinging jet at the scaled upper plenum of HTGR using TR-PIV, The Proceedings of the International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE), Tsukuba, Japan, May 2019.
• Investigation of Flow near the Wall of a Single Impinging Jet at the Scaled Upper Plenum of HTGR using TR-PIV, Anas Alwafi, Thien Nguyen, Yassin Hassan, and N. K. Anand, International Conference on Nuclear Engineering -27, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, May 19-24, 2019
• Anas Alwafi, Thien Nguyen, N. K. Anand, Yassin Hassan, “Time-Resolved Particle Image Velocimetry Measurements and Proper Orthogonal Decomposition Analysis of Jet Impingement in a HTGR Upper Plenum,” Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Vol. 118, pp. 1120-1122, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 17–21, 2018
• Anas Alwafi, Jae Hyung Park, Saya Lee, Carlos Estrada-Perez, N. K. Anand, Yassin A. Hassan, “Study of the Flow at the Upper Plenum of a Scaled VHTR using PTV,” 17 th International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems (ICENES) 2015, Istanbul, Turkey, October 4-8, 2015.
• Jae Hyung Park, Anas Alwafi, Saya Lee, Yassin A. Hassan, N. K. Anand. “Particle Image Velocimetry on a Single Buoyant Plume of the Very High Temperature Gas- Cooled Reactor,” 2015 the American Nuclear Society (ANS) Winter Meeting, Washington, DC, USA, November 8-12, 2015