Preconceptual Design of Multifunctional Gas-Cooled Cartridge Loop for the Versatile Test Reactor—Part I

Piyush Sabharwall; Kevan Weaver; N. K. Anand; Chris Ellis; Xiaodong Sun; Di Chen; Hangbok Choi; Rich Christensen; Brian M. Fronk; Joshua Gess; Yassin Hassan; Igor Jovanovic; Annalisa Manera; Victor Petrov; Rodolfo Vaghetto; Silvino Balderrama-Prieto; Adam J. Burak; Milos Burger; Alberto Cardenas-Melgar; Londrea Garrett; Genevieve L. Gaudin; Daniel Orea; Reynaldo Chavez; Byunghee Choi; Noah Sutton; Ken Williams; Josh Young

doi:10.1080/00295639.2022.2070383

Preconceptual Design of Multifunctional Gas-Cooled Cartridge Loop for the Versatile Test Reactor—Part I

Piyush Sabharwall, Kevan Weaver, N. K. Anand, Chris Ellis, Xiaodong Sun, Di Chen, Hangbok Choi, Rich Christensen, Brian M. Fronk, Joshua Gess, Yassin Hassan, Igor Jovanovic, Annalisa Manera, Victor Petrov, Rodolfo Vaghetto, Silvino Balderrama-Prieto, Adam J. Burak, Milos Burger, Alberto Cardenas-Melgar, Londrea GarrettGenevieve L. Gaudin, Daniel Orea, Reynaldo Chavez, Byunghee Choi, Noah Sutton, Ken Williams, Josh Young

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

An integrated effort by the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) Team to develop an experiment vehicle or extended-length test assembly for the VTR experiments is led by the Idaho National Laboratory and supported by an industrial partner, General Atomics, and university partners, including Texas A&M University, University of Michigan, Oregon State University, University of Houston, and University of Idaho. The overall focus of the effort is to design a helium gas-cooled cartridge loop (GCL) to assist with the testing of fuels, materials, and instrumentation to further support development of advanced reactor systems. This study is divided into two parts. Part I provides the GCL functional requirements and critical irradiation data needs for advancing GFR technologies. Part II includes the measurement techniques developed to measure the thermophysical properties of the different materials in the GCL, as well as the functionality and efficacy of these instrumentation and control systems within the GCL. This paper, Part I, describes the overall preliminary conceptual design of the VTR helium cartridge loop, the design of a fission product venting system, the thermal-hydraulic effects of flow direction, and gamma-heating generation in the cartridge. This paper also describes a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics study that was carried out to examine the effects of the helium flow direction in the GCL on its thermal-hydraulic characteristics, engineering feasibility, and in-VTR experiment design. Both steady-state operation and a transient scenario (pressurized loss of forced circulation) were analyzed for the upward and downward helium flow options in the test article section in the GCL to provide quantitative data for selection of the helium flow direction. Additional analyses and development, as well as integrated out-of-pile testing, are planned to demonstrate and verify the performance of the GCL prior to insertion into the VTR.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	183-214
Number of pages	32
Journal	Nuclear Science and Engineering
Volume	196
Issue number	sup1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2070383
State	Published - 2022
Externally published	Yes

Funding

This work was supported by the Idaho National Laboratory [UNSE-2022-C7432]. The submitted document has been created by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC, operator of INL. INL’s work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy under contract number DE-AC07-05ID14517. The work reported in this paper is the result of ongoing efforts supporting the VTR. The submitted document has been created by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC, operator of INL. INL’s work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy under contract number DE-AC07-05ID14517. The work reported in this paper is the result of ongoing efforts supporting the VTR.

Funders	Funder number
Battelle Energy Alliance
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Nuclear Energy	DE-AC07-05ID14517
Idaho National Laboratory	UNSE-2022-C7432

Keywords

Versatile Test Reactor
gas-cooled fast reactor
helium gas-cooled cartridge loop
preliminary conceptual design
thermophysical properties

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10.1080/00295639.2022.2070383

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Sabharwall, P., Weaver, K., Anand, N. K., Ellis, C., Sun, X., Chen, D., Choi, H., Christensen, R., Fronk, B. M., Gess, J., Hassan, Y., Jovanovic, I., Manera, A., Petrov, V., Vaghetto, R., Balderrama-Prieto, S., Burak, A. J., Burger, M., Cardenas-Melgar, A., ... Young, J. (2022). Preconceptual Design of Multifunctional Gas-Cooled Cartridge Loop for the Versatile Test Reactor—Part I. Nuclear Science and Engineering, 196(sup1), 183-214. https://doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2070383

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title = "Preconceptual Design of Multifunctional Gas-Cooled Cartridge Loop for the Versatile Test Reactor—Part I",

abstract = "An integrated effort by the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) Team to develop an experiment vehicle or extended-length test assembly for the VTR experiments is led by the Idaho National Laboratory and supported by an industrial partner, General Atomics, and university partners, including Texas A&M University, University of Michigan, Oregon State University, University of Houston, and University of Idaho. The overall focus of the effort is to design a helium gas-cooled cartridge loop (GCL) to assist with the testing of fuels, materials, and instrumentation to further support development of advanced reactor systems. This study is divided into two parts. Part I provides the GCL functional requirements and critical irradiation data needs for advancing GFR technologies. Part II includes the measurement techniques developed to measure the thermophysical properties of the different materials in the GCL, as well as the functionality and efficacy of these instrumentation and control systems within the GCL. This paper, Part I, describes the overall preliminary conceptual design of the VTR helium cartridge loop, the design of a fission product venting system, the thermal-hydraulic effects of flow direction, and gamma-heating generation in the cartridge. This paper also describes a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics study that was carried out to examine the effects of the helium flow direction in the GCL on its thermal-hydraulic characteristics, engineering feasibility, and in-VTR experiment design. Both steady-state operation and a transient scenario (pressurized loss of forced circulation) were analyzed for the upward and downward helium flow options in the test article section in the GCL to provide quantitative data for selection of the helium flow direction. Additional analyses and development, as well as integrated out-of-pile testing, are planned to demonstrate and verify the performance of the GCL prior to insertion into the VTR.",

keywords = "Versatile Test Reactor, gas-cooled fast reactor, helium gas-cooled cartridge loop, preliminary conceptual design, thermophysical properties",

author = "Piyush Sabharwall and Kevan Weaver and Anand, {N. K.} and Chris Ellis and Xiaodong Sun and Di Chen and Hangbok Choi and Rich Christensen and Fronk, {Brian M.} and Joshua Gess and Yassin Hassan and Igor Jovanovic and Annalisa Manera and Victor Petrov and Rodolfo Vaghetto and Silvino Balderrama-Prieto and Burak, {Adam J.} and Milos Burger and Alberto Cardenas-Melgar and Londrea Garrett and Gaudin, {Genevieve L.} and Daniel Orea and Reynaldo Chavez and Byunghee Choi and Noah Sutton and Ken Williams and Josh Young",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.",

year = "2022",

doi = "10.1080/00295639.2022.2070383",

language = "English",

volume = "196",

pages = "183--214",

journal = "Nuclear Science and Engineering",

issn = "0029-5639",

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Sabharwall, P, Weaver, K, Anand, NK, Ellis, C, Sun, X, Chen, D, Choi, H, Christensen, R, Fronk, BM, Gess, J, Hassan, Y, Jovanovic, I, Manera, A, Petrov, V, Vaghetto, R, Balderrama-Prieto, S, Burak, AJ, Burger, M, Cardenas-Melgar, A, Garrett, L, Gaudin, GL, Orea, D, Chavez, R, Choi, B, Sutton, N, Williams, K & Young, J 2022, 'Preconceptual Design of Multifunctional Gas-Cooled Cartridge Loop for the Versatile Test Reactor—Part I', Nuclear Science and Engineering, vol. 196, no. sup1, pp. 183-214. https://doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2070383

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T1 - Preconceptual Design of Multifunctional Gas-Cooled Cartridge Loop for the Versatile Test Reactor—Part I

AU - Sabharwall, Piyush

AU - Weaver, Kevan

AU - Anand, N. K.

AU - Ellis, Chris

AU - Sun, Xiaodong

AU - Chen, Di

AU - Choi, Hangbok

AU - Christensen, Rich

AU - Fronk, Brian M.

AU - Gess, Joshua

AU - Hassan, Yassin

AU - Jovanovic, Igor

AU - Manera, Annalisa

AU - Petrov, Victor

AU - Vaghetto, Rodolfo

AU - Balderrama-Prieto, Silvino

AU - Burak, Adam J.

AU - Burger, Milos

AU - Cardenas-Melgar, Alberto

AU - Garrett, Londrea

AU - Gaudin, Genevieve L.

AU - Orea, Daniel

AU - Chavez, Reynaldo

AU - Choi, Byunghee

AU - Sutton, Noah

AU - Williams, Ken

AU - Young, Josh

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - An integrated effort by the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) Team to develop an experiment vehicle or extended-length test assembly for the VTR experiments is led by the Idaho National Laboratory and supported by an industrial partner, General Atomics, and university partners, including Texas A&M University, University of Michigan, Oregon State University, University of Houston, and University of Idaho. The overall focus of the effort is to design a helium gas-cooled cartridge loop (GCL) to assist with the testing of fuels, materials, and instrumentation to further support development of advanced reactor systems. This study is divided into two parts. Part I provides the GCL functional requirements and critical irradiation data needs for advancing GFR technologies. Part II includes the measurement techniques developed to measure the thermophysical properties of the different materials in the GCL, as well as the functionality and efficacy of these instrumentation and control systems within the GCL. This paper, Part I, describes the overall preliminary conceptual design of the VTR helium cartridge loop, the design of a fission product venting system, the thermal-hydraulic effects of flow direction, and gamma-heating generation in the cartridge. This paper also describes a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics study that was carried out to examine the effects of the helium flow direction in the GCL on its thermal-hydraulic characteristics, engineering feasibility, and in-VTR experiment design. Both steady-state operation and a transient scenario (pressurized loss of forced circulation) were analyzed for the upward and downward helium flow options in the test article section in the GCL to provide quantitative data for selection of the helium flow direction. Additional analyses and development, as well as integrated out-of-pile testing, are planned to demonstrate and verify the performance of the GCL prior to insertion into the VTR.

AB - An integrated effort by the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) Team to develop an experiment vehicle or extended-length test assembly for the VTR experiments is led by the Idaho National Laboratory and supported by an industrial partner, General Atomics, and university partners, including Texas A&M University, University of Michigan, Oregon State University, University of Houston, and University of Idaho. The overall focus of the effort is to design a helium gas-cooled cartridge loop (GCL) to assist with the testing of fuels, materials, and instrumentation to further support development of advanced reactor systems. This study is divided into two parts. Part I provides the GCL functional requirements and critical irradiation data needs for advancing GFR technologies. Part II includes the measurement techniques developed to measure the thermophysical properties of the different materials in the GCL, as well as the functionality and efficacy of these instrumentation and control systems within the GCL. This paper, Part I, describes the overall preliminary conceptual design of the VTR helium cartridge loop, the design of a fission product venting system, the thermal-hydraulic effects of flow direction, and gamma-heating generation in the cartridge. This paper also describes a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics study that was carried out to examine the effects of the helium flow direction in the GCL on its thermal-hydraulic characteristics, engineering feasibility, and in-VTR experiment design. Both steady-state operation and a transient scenario (pressurized loss of forced circulation) were analyzed for the upward and downward helium flow options in the test article section in the GCL to provide quantitative data for selection of the helium flow direction. Additional analyses and development, as well as integrated out-of-pile testing, are planned to demonstrate and verify the performance of the GCL prior to insertion into the VTR.

KW - Versatile Test Reactor

KW - gas-cooled fast reactor

KW - helium gas-cooled cartridge loop

KW - preliminary conceptual design

KW - thermophysical properties

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IS - sup1

ER -

Preconceptual Design of Multifunctional Gas-Cooled Cartridge Loop for the Versatile Test Reactor—Part I

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