Experimental Studies on the Thermal Hydraulics of a Fuel Column for a Gas-Cooled Micro Reactor (GMR)

Zheng Huang (), Miaoxin Jiao, Jian Jiao, Yanyu Sun, Yanfang Xue, Shuoting Zhang and Dingsheng Wang
Additional contact information
Zheng Huang: China Nuclear Power Engineering Co., Ltd. (CNPE), Beijing 100840, China
Miaoxin Jiao: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Jian Jiao: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Yanyu Sun: China Nuclear Power Engineering Co., Ltd. (CNPE), Beijing 100840, China
Yanfang Xue: China Nuclear Power Engineering Co., Ltd. (CNPE), Beijing 100840, China
Shuoting Zhang: China Nuclear Power Engineering Co., Ltd. (CNPE), Beijing 100840, China
Dingsheng Wang: China Nuclear Power Engineering Co., Ltd. (CNPE), Beijing 100840, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: A thermal-hydraulic test facility is designed to explore the thermal-hydraulic characteristics inside a fuel assembly under normal operating conditions, thereby providing data for validating computer codes for a novel gas-cooled micro reactor (GMR). The primary loop supplies helium at a prototypic temperature and pressure to the test section containing a full-size fuel assembly. The experimental procedure and the test conditions were elaborated. Pre-test simulations using the COMSOL Multiphysics 5.0 software yield detailed 3D distributions of the temperature and flow fields inside the test section, which were employed to guide the positioning of thermocouples. The maximum temperature and its locus, the pressure drop of the coolant through the test section, and the helium temperature at the outlet duct were determined. The simulation indicates that the “mixer” component can effectively enhance the mixing of helium in the rear plenum and reduce the outlet helium temperature. The measured data of preliminary tests at the facility agree well with the predicted values, which proves the accuracy and reliability of the thermocouples. An unheated section at the end of the heating rods leads to a relatively large deviation of the results on the last measuring plane.

Keywords: HTGR; thermal hydraulic facility; code validation; COMSOL Multiphysics (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: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/8/2039/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/8/2039/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:8:p:2039-:d:1635882

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().