Extension of the supercritical carbon dioxide brayton cycle to low reactor power operation: investigations using the coupled anl plant dynamics code-SAS4A/SASSYS-1 liquid metal reactor code system.

Significant progress has been made on the development of a control strategy for the supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycle enabling removal of power from an autonomous load following Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) down to decay heat levels such that the S-CO{sub 2} cycle can be used to cool the reactor until decay heat can be removed by the normal shutdown heat removal system or a passive decay heat removal system such as Direct Reactor Auxiliary Cooling System (DRACS) loops with DRACS in-vessel heat exchangers. This capability of the new control strategy eliminates the need for use of a separate shutdown heat removal system which might also use supercritical CO{sub 2}. It has been found that this capability can be achieved by introducing a new control mechanism involving shaft speed control for the common shaft joining the turbine and two compressors following reduction of the load demand from the electrical grid to zero. Following disconnection of the generator from the electrical grid, heat is removed from the intermediate sodium circuit through the sodium-to-CO{sub 2} heat exchanger, the turbine solely drives the two compressors, and heat is rejected from the cycle through the CO{sub 2}-to-water cooler. To investigate the effectiveness of shaft speed control, calculations are carried out using the coupled Plant Dynamics Code-SAS4A/SASSYS-1 code for a linear load reduction transient for a 1000 MWt metallic-fueled SFR with autonomous load following. No deliberate motion of control rods or adjustment of sodium pump speeds is assumed to take place. It is assumed that the S-CO{sub 2} turbomachinery shaft speed linearly decreases from 100 to 20% nominal following reduction of grid load to zero. The reactor power is calculated to autonomously decrease down to 3% nominal providing a lengthy window in time for the switchover to the normal shutdown heat removal system or for a passive decay heat removal system to become effective. However, the calculations reveal that the compressor conditions are calculated to approach surge such that the need for a surge control system for each compressor is identified. Thus, it is demonstrated that the S-CO{sub 2} cycle can operate in the initial decay heat removal mode even with autonomous reactor control. Because external power is not needed to drive the compressors, the results show that the S-CO{sub 2} cycle can be used for initial decay heat removal for a lengthy interval in time in the absence of any off-site electrical power. The turbine provides sufficient power to drive the compressors. Combined with autonomous reactor control, this represents a significant safety advantage of the S-CO{sub 2} cycle by maintaining removal of the reactor power until the core decay heat falls to levels well below those for which the passive decay heat removal system is designed. The new control strategy is an alternative to a split-shaft layout involving separate power and compressor turbines which had previously been identified as a promising approach enabling heat removal from a SFR at low power levels. The current results indicate that the split-shaft configuration does not provide any significant benefits for the S-CO{sub 2} cycle over the current single-shaft layout with shaft speed control. It has been demonstrated that when connected to the grid the single-shaft cycle can effectively follow the load over the entire range. No compressor speed variation is needed while power is delivered to the grid. When the system is disconnected from the grid, the shaft speed can be changed as effectively as it would be with the split-shaft arrangement. In the split-shaft configuration, zero generator power means disconnection of the power turbine, such that the resulting system will be almost identical to the single-shaft arrangement. Without this advantage of the split-shaft configuration, the economic benefits of the single-shaft arrangement, provided by just one turbine and lower losses at the design point, are more important to the overall cycle performance. Therefore, the single-shaft configuration shall be retained as the reference arrangement for S-CO{sub 2} cycle power converter preconceptual designs. Improvements to the ANL Plant Dynamics Code have been carried out. The major code improvement is the introduction of a restart capability which simplifies investigation of control strategies for very long transients. Another code modification is transfer of the entire code to a new Intel Fortran complier; the execution of the code using the new compiler was verified by demonstrating that the same results are obtained as when the previous Compaq Visual Fortran compiler was used

Supercritical carbon dioxide cycle control analysis.

This report documents work carried out during FY 2008 on further investigation of control strategies for supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycle energy converters. The main focus of the present work has been on investigation of the S-CO{sub 2} cycle control and behavior under conditions not covered by previous work. An important scenario which has not been previously calculated involves cycle operation for a Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) following a reactor scram event and the transition to the primary coolant natural circulation and decay heat removal. The Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) Plant Dynamics Code has been applied to investigate the dynamic behavior of the 96 MWe (250 MWt) Advanced Burner Test Reactor (ABTR) S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle following scram. The timescale for the primary sodium flowrate to coast down and the transition to natural circulation to occur was calculated with the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 computer code and found to be about 400 seconds. It is assumed that after this time, decay heat is removed by the normal ABTR shutdown heat removal system incorporating a dedicated shutdown heat removal S-CO{sub 2} pump and cooler. The ANL Plant Dynamics Code configured for the Small Secure Transportable Autonomous Reactor (SSTAR) Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor (LFR) was utilized to model the S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle with a decaying liquid metal coolant flow to the Pb-to-CO{sub 2} heat exchangers and temperatures reflecting the decaying core power and heat removal by the cycle. The results obtained in this manner are approximate but indicative of the cycle transient performance. The ANL Plant Dynamics Code calculations show that the S-CO{sub 2} cycle can operate for about 400 seconds following the reactor scram driven by the thermal energy stored in the reactor structures and coolant such that heat removal from the reactor exceeds the decay heat generation. Based on the results, requirements for the shutdown heat removal system may be defined. In particular, the peak heat removal capacity of the shutdown heat removal loop may be specified to be 1.1 % of the nominal reactor power. An investigation of the oscillating cycle behavior calculated by the ANL Plant Dynamics Code under specific conditions has been carried out. It has been found that the calculation of unstable operation of the cycle during power reduction to 0 % may be attributed to the modeling of main compressor operation. The most probable reason for such instabilities is the limit of applicability of the currently used one-dimensional compressor performance subroutines which are based on empirical loss coefficients. A development of more detailed compressor design and performance models is required and is recommended for future work in order to better investigate and possibly eliminate the calculated instabilities. Also, as part of such model development, more reliable surge criteria should be developed for compressor operation close to the critical point. It is expected that more detailed compressor models will be developed as a part of validation of the Plant Dynamics Code through model comparison with the experiment data generated in the small S-CO{sub 2} loops being constructed at Barber-Nichols Inc. and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). Although such a comparison activity had been planned to be initiated in FY 2008, data from the SNL compression loop currently in operation at Barber Nichols Inc. has not yet become available by the due date of this report. To enable the transient S-CO{sub 2} cycle investigations to be carried out, the ANL Plant Dynamics Code for the S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle was further developed and improved. The improvements include further optimization and tuning of the control mechanisms as well as an adaptation of the code for reactor systems other than the Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor (LFR). Since the focus of the ANL work on S-CO{sub 2} cycle development for the majority of the current year has been on the applicability of the cycle to SFRs, work has started on modification of the ANL Plant Dynamics Code to allow the dynamic simulation of the ABTR. The code modifications have reached the point where a transient simulation can be run in steady state mode; i.e., to determine the steady state initial conditions at full power without an initiating event. The results show that the steady state solution is maintained with minimal variations during at least 4,000 seconds of the transient. More SFR design specific modifications to the ANL Plant Dynamics Code are required to run the code in a full transient mode, including models for the sodium pumps and their control as well as models for reactivity feedback and control of the reactor power

You Know, You Grow

As we have studied the nature of wicked problems and connected with local case studies, our team has come to the conclusion that in order for communities to grow and develop deeper connections, healthier neighborhoods, and happier residents, there must be inclusive dialogue and participatory action. Addressing a neighborhood’s nutritional needs is messy, involving complex social dynamics and disparate stakeholders. Through community connections and dialogic inquiry we have begun to recognize needs related to the local food system. We strive to empower residents to pursue self-directed, neighborhood oriented change. Our team first worked to develop a model of community engagement that can be adapted, copied, and spread to any community setting. The model explained how to conduct inclusive, participatory dialogue that aims to encourage story-telling and camaraderie rather than debate or opposition. Secondly, our team has engaged with several community members over the course of the semester to practice having these dialogic conversations in order to learn, change, and grow as individuals better equipped to understand and progress the dialogue on local food systems. This article synthesizes our findings, describes what we have learned, and offers a model for healthy community conversations that drive locally directed growth

Performance improvement options for the supercritical carbon dioxide brayton cycle.

The supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycle is under development at Argonne National Laboratory as an advanced power conversion technology for Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs) as well as other Generation IV advanced reactors as an alternative to the traditional Rankine steam cycle. For SFRs, the S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle eliminates the need to consider sodium-water reactions in the licensing and safety evaluation, reduces the capital cost of the SFR plant, and increases the SFR plant efficiency. Even though the S-CO{sub 2} cycle has been under development for some time and optimal sets of operating parameters have been determined, those earlier development and optimization studies have largely been directed at applications to other systems such as gas-cooled reactors which have higher operating temperatures than SFRs. In addition, little analysis has been carried out to investigate cycle configurations deviating from the selected 'recompression' S-CO{sub 2} cycle configuration. In this work, several possible ways to improve S-CO{sub 2} cycle performance for SFR applications have been identified and analyzed. One set of options incorporates optimization approaches investigated previously, such as variations in the maximum and minimum cycle pressure and minimum cycle temperature, as well as a tradeoff between the component sizes and the cycle performance. In addition, the present investigation also covers options which have received little or no attention in the previous studies. Specific options include a 'multiple-recompression' cycle configuration, intercooling and reheating, as well as liquid-phase CO{sub 2} compression (pumping) either by CO{sub 2} condensation or by a direct transition from the supercritical to the liquid phase. Some of the options considered did not improve the cycle efficiency as could be anticipated beforehand. Those options include: a double recompression cycle, intercooling between the compressor stages, and reheating between the turbine stages. Analyses carried out as part of the current investigation confirm the possibilities of improving the cycle efficiency that have been identified in previous investigations. The options in this group include: increasing the heat exchanger and turbomachinery sizes, raising of the cycle high end pressure (although the improvement potential of this option is very limited), and optimization of the low end temperature and/or pressure to operate as close to the (pseudo) critical point as possible. Analyses carried out for the present investigation show that significant cycle performance improvement can sometimes be realized if the cycle operates below the critical temperature at its low end. Such operation, however, requires the availability of a heat sink with a temperature lower than 30 C for which applicability of this configuration is dependent upon the climate conditions where the plant is constructed (i.e., potential performance improvements are site specific). Overall, it is shown that the S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle efficiency can potentially be increased to 45 %, if a low temperature heat sink is available and incorporation of larger components (e.g.., heat exchangers or turbomachinery) having greater component efficiencies does not significantly increase the overall plant cost

Freezing controlled penetration of molten metals flowing through stainless steel tubes

The freezing controlled penetration potential of molten metals flowing within stainless steel structure is important to the safety assessment of hypothetical severe accidents in liquid metal reactors. A series of scoping experiments has been performed in which molten stainless steel and nickel at various initial temperatures and driving pressures were injected downward and upward into 6.4 and 3.3 mm ID stainless steel tubes filled with argon gas and initially at room temperature. In all tests, there was no evidence that the solid tube wall was wetted by the molten metals. The penetration phenomena are markedly different for downward versus upward injections. The dependency upon tube orientation is explained in terms of the absence of wetting. Complete plugs were formed in all experiments halting the continued injection of melt. Calculations with a fluid dynamics/heat transfer computer code show that the injected masses limited by plugging are consistent with freezing through the growth of a stable solidified layer (crust) of metal upon the solid tube wall. 23 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs

Natural Circulation and Linear Stability Analysis for Liquid-Metal Reactors with the Effect of Fluid Axial Conduction

The effect of fluid axial thermal conduction on one-dimensional liquid metal natural circulation and its linear stability was performed through nondimensional analysis, steady-state assessment, and linear perturbation evaluation. The Nyquist criterion and a root-search method were employed to find the linear stability boundary of both forward and backward circulations. The study provided a relatively complete analysis method for one-dimensional natural circulation problems with the consideration of fluid axial heat conduction. The results suggest that fluid axial heat conduction in a natural circulation loop should be considered only when the modified Peclet number is similar to 1 or less, which is significantly smaller than the practical value of a lead liquid metal cooled reactor.This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by American Nuclear Society and can be found at: http://www.new.ans.org/pubs/journals/nt/Keywords: Fluid axial heat conduction, Linear perturbation analysis, Liquid metal reactor