Convection effect of the freeze valve melting process on molten salt reactor

Indarta Kuncoro Aji, Tatsuya Tokushima, Koji Enoki, Motoyasu Kinoshita, Tomio Okawa

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Freeze valve is one of the major safety systems used in the Molten Salt Reactor (MSR), that automatically opens in case of accident. The freeze valve was first developed in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to be utilized in the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE). Currently, many organizations have developed different types of MSR. Thus, appropriate freeze valve designs are needed. Fundamental studies to understand the basic features of freeze valve are important to develop new designs. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of convection in the molten salt on the opening time of the freeze valve. Numerical simulations were conducted using the ANSYS Fluent 18.1 and the results were compared with the experimental data obtained under similar conditions. From the calculation results, it was found that the convection in molten salt is often neglected but it noticeably accelerate the opening time of the freeze valve. It was concluded that the convection effect should be taken into consideration in the design of high-performance freeze valve.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 27th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering, ICONE 2019 - "Nuclear Power Saves the World!"
PublisherAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
ISBN (Electronic)9784888983051
Publication statusPublished - May 18 2019
Externally publishedYes
Event27th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering: Nuclear Power Saves the World!, ICONE 2019 - Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Duration: May 19 2019May 24 2019

Publication series

NameInternational Conference on Nuclear Engineering, Proceedings, ICONE
Volume2019-May

Conference

Conference27th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering: Nuclear Power Saves the World!, ICONE 2019
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityTsukuba, Ibaraki
Period5/19/195/24/19

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear Energy and Engineering

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