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Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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Colin Judge: Testing structural materials in Idaho’s newest hot cell facility
Idaho National Laboratory’s newest facility—the Sample Preparation Laboratory (SPL)—sits across the road from the Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF), which started operating in 1975. SPL will host the first new hot cells at INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) in 50 years, giving INL researchers and partners new flexibility to test the structural properties of irradiated materials fresh from the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) or from a partner’s facility.
Materials meant to withstand extreme conditions in fission or fusion power plants must be tested under similar conditions and pushed past their breaking points so performance and limitations can be understood and improved. Once irradiated, materials samples can be cut down to size in SPL and packaged for testing in other facilities at INL or other national laboratories, commercial labs, or universities. But they can also be subjected to extreme thermal or corrosive conditions and mechanical testing right in SPL, explains Colin Judge, who, as INL’s division director for nuclear materials performance, oversees SPL and other facilities at the MFC.
SPL won’t go “hot” until January 2026, but Judge spoke with NN staff writer Susan Gallier about its capabilities as his team was moving instruments into the new facility.
Peiwei Sun, Jin Jiang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 180 | Number 3 | December 2012 | Pages 399-421
Technical Paper | Special Issue on the Initial Release of MCNP6 / Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A15352
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this paper, a dynamic model of the Canadian supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR) is developed to examine its dynamics for potential control system design and analysis. The model development is based on fundamental mass, energy, and momentum conservation equations of major components within the Canadian SCWR operating at supercritical condition. A full set of nonlinear dynamic equations is first derived, from which linearized models are obtained. The linearized models are validated against the full-order nonlinear models in both time domain and frequency domain. The open-loop dynamic characteristics of the Canadian SCWR are investigated through extensive simulations. Steady-state and dynamic couplings among different inputs and outputs are examined using relative gain array and Nyquist plots, and adequate input-output pairings are identified. Cross-coupling at different operating conditions is also evaluated to illustrate the nonlinear behaviors of the system. The developed dynamic model provides a necessary platform for systematic investigation in the control system design and analysis of the Canadian SCWR.