Method to Estimate Thermal Transients in Reactors and Determine Their Parameter Sensitivities without a Forward Simulation

Sydney A. Holdampf, Andrew G. Osborne and Mark R. Deinert ()
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Sydney A. Holdampf: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Andrew G. Osborne: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Mark R. Deinert: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 19, 1-13

Abstract: Thermal response time is an important parameter for the control of fast reactors. Modern thermal hydraulic codes allow for the modeling of transient responses and can also be used to understand the dominant factors that affect them. However, simulations can be computationally expensive, particularly for performing parametric analyses of how thermophysical properties affect transient behavior. Here, we present a method for using linear stability analysis to estimate thermal response time and determine the key parameters that affect transient behavior without performing a forward simulation. The approach can also be used to corroborate simulation results and is tested against simulation results produced with a 2D finite difference model. The results show that this approach produces time-dependent temperature profiles that are within 2 × 10 −5 –0.1% of the numerical results for a single node perturbation. Changes in temperature have the greatest effect on thermal response time, followed by changes to thermal conductivity.

Keywords: fast reactor; thermal hydraulics; transient; finite difference; thermal transport (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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