Study on Heating Process of Dehumidifying Experiment in HTGR

Abstract

A large number of carbon materials are used in high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR). As a kind of porous material, the carbon material contains a certain amount of moisture and other impurities. In order to reduce the corrosion of internal material in reactor core of HTGR, the initial core or post-accident core must be strictly heated and dehumidified. The current primary circuit heating mainly relies on the rotation of the primary pump to convert the kinetic energy into thermal energy. Obviously, the current scheme was flawed: (1) Due to the insufficient heat generated by rotation of the primary pump, the temperature rising process of the primary circuit is sluggish; (2) The rotation of the primary pump converts the kinetic energy into thermal energy of the helium, at the meantime, the primary circuit dissipates heat outward. For the above reasons, it is difficult to achieve the desired dehumidification temperature in the heating process. While in this paper, an additional thermal source will be added to the steam generator to heat the primary circuit in a new scheme. A proper flow and heat-transfer model of heating the primary circuit in high-temperature reactor was established based on software COMSOL Multiphysics. The numerical analysis of the primary circuit heating process provides rewarding guidance for the selection of the dehumidification scheme in HTGR.