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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.
A. Isaev, J. Felbinger, C. Evrim, R. Kulenovic, E. Laurien (Univ of Stuttgart)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 325-334
Turbulent and stratified mixing flows can cause thermal fatigue in nuclear power plant piping systems. In order to diminish the investigation effort of thermal mixing flow phenomena, a geometrically similar isothermal Mixed Fluid Interaction (MFI) mixing tee using a sodium chloride solution to model the cold heavy branch pipe fluid is built. The purpose of the MFI experiments is to predict the flow phenomena in the vertical thermal mixing Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) T-junction configuration at the University of Stuttgart. Due to limited optical accessibility of the FSI facility a numerical similarity comparison of the flow phenomena occurring in both experimental setups (MFI/FSI) is essential. Thus, Large Eddy Simulations are carried out which are experimentally validated by applying the Particle Image Velocimetry and Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence measurement techniques and as well as benchmark data. The similarity investigation confirms the usage of three characterizing parameters for the adaption of relevant physical boundary conditions to the FSI setup (branch pipe Reynolds number (??????), mixing Richardson number (????) and momentum ratio (????)). Thereby, the evidenced similarity ensures the utilization of the cold mixing experimental setup for the visual prediction of flow patterns occurring in the hot mixing FSI facility.