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Identification of stable zone via linear stability analysis of supercritical water natural circulation loop

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Abstract

A mathematical model for supercritical water natural circulation loop (SCWNCL) is developed to study flow instabilities by linear stability analysis. The SCWNCL is a loop geometry, which is driven by natural circulation with supercritical water (SCW) as a coolant. A mathematical approach is developed to couple thermal-hydraulic (TH) model and neutron point kinetics (NPK) model. This nuclear coupled model is then used to perform a linear asymptotic stability analysis of the steady state of SCWNCL. A comprehensive numerical study of the linear asymptotic stability analysis is presented with particular emphasis on the effects of coupling. As a result of coupling, a transition from unstable to the stable region and vice-versa is observed for some governing parameter values, which is significantly different from the TH model. Furthermore, the stable operating zone’s are investigated by taking appropriate geometrical and operating conditions via stability analysis.

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Abbreviations

A :

Cross sectional area

D :

Loop diameter

g :

Acceleration due to gravity

e :

Total specific internal energy

e f :

Total specific flow energy

f :

Friction factor

h :

Specific enthalpy

W :

Mass flow rate

K :

Loss coefficient

p :

Pressure

H :

Vertical height

q ″w :

Heat flux per unit area

v :

Specific volume

P w :

Wetted perimeter

P h :

Heated perimeter

L :

Length of the section

u :

Velocity vector field

T sup :

Coolant temperature at superheated conditions

H f :

Heat transfer coefficient

a f :

Heat transfer area of fuel rod

m f :

Mass of fuel rod

δ :

Dirac-delta operator

φ :

Inclination angle

ρ :

Density of the fluid

T w :

Wall shear stress

β :

Total fraction of delayed neutron

β m :

Delayed neutron fraction of delayed neutron group of m

λ m :

Decay constant of delayed neutron group of m

Λ:

Prompt neutron life time

In :

Inlet

av :

Average

h :

Heater

c :

Cooler

ss :

Steady state

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge PDPM Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design, and Manufacturing (IIITDM), Jabalpur for the financial funding as well as providing the computational facility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. PDPM Indian Institute of Information Technology design and Manufacturing Jabalpur, Dumna Airport Road, Khamaria, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, 482005, India

    Neetesh Singh Raghuvanshi & Manoj Kumar Panda

  2. Jagti Campus, Indian Institute of Technology Jammu, Nagrota Bypass Road, Jammu & Kashmir, 181221, India

    Goutam Dutta

Authors
  1. Neetesh Singh Raghuvanshi
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  2. Goutam Dutta
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  3. Manoj Kumar Panda
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Goutam Dutta.

Additional information

Neetesh Singh Raghuvanshi received his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from RGPV, Bhopal, India in 2011, and his M.Tech. from MANIT, Bhopal, India in 2014. He is currently a Ph.D. research scholar working in the field of linear and nonlinear stability analysis of nuclear reactor at PDPM IIITDM, Jabalpur, India.

Goutam Dutta received his Ph.D. and M. Tech. degrees from IIT, Mumbai, India in 2008 and 2003, all in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently working as an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at IIT, Jammu, India. His research interests are heat transfer, computational fluid dynamics and 3-D-space kinetics.

Manoj Kumar Panda received his Ph.D. degree from IIT, Kanpur, India in 2011. He is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the natural science discipline at PDPM IIITDM, Jabalpur, India. His research interests include applied partial & ordinary differential equations, mathematical modelling and scientific computing (analytical & numerical study).

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Raghuvanshi, N.S., Dutta, G. & Panda, M.K. Identification of stable zone via linear stability analysis of supercritical water natural circulation loop. J Mech Sci Technol 35, 747–759 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-0135-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-0135-x

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