Experimental study on a simplified facility of HTGR Reactor building response to depressurization accidental scenarios

The analysis and understanding of air ingress events is an important aspect in the design of The High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGR) accident scenarios including Depressurized Loss of Forced Cooling (D-LOFC) events that allow for the possibility of air ingress into the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) as the result of a break in the helium pressure boundary which can ultimately result in oxidation of the fuel elements and other nuclear-grade graphite components. In order to characterize the air ingress into the vented low pressure compartments (VLPC) of NGNP HTGR during hypothetical small break D-LOFC accidents experimentally, a 1/28 down scaled simplified reactor building model was developed. A non-dimensional similarity approach was employed for the scaling analysis of the experimental facility. Two experiments were conducted under similar experimental conditions, with 1.1 kg/h helium injection through the top of the reactor cavity, resulting in oxygen concentrations reaching to steady state within 4 minutes. Differences between the steady state oxygen concentrations results in the steam generator cavity of the two tests with the same experimental conditions were 0.51±0.086% at the top of the steam generator cavity and 0.29±0.11% at the bottom of the steam generator cavity. Difference in the pressure in the reactor between the two experiments were 0.09±0.026 psig.