Steady-state thermal-hydraulic analysis of SCWR assembly

Abstract

Among the six gen-IV reactor concepts recommended by the gen-IV international forum (GIF), supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR), the only reactor with water as coolant, achieves a high thermal efficiency and, subsequently, has economic advantages over the existing reactors due to its high outlet temperature. A thermal-hydraulic analysis of the SCWR assembly is performed in this paper using the modified COBRA-IV code. Two approaches to reduce the hot channel factor are investigated: decreasing the moderator mass flow and increasing the thermal resistance between moderator channel and its adjacent sub-channels. It is shown that heat transfer deterioration cannot be avoided in SCWR fuel assembly. It is, therefore, highly required to calculate the cladding temperature accurately and to preserve the fuel rod cladding integrity under heat transfer deterioration conditions.

Keywords

supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR) / sub-channel analysis / fuel assembly design / heat transfer deterioration