Analysis of Internal Flow for Component Cooling Water Heat Exchanger in CANDU Nuclear Power Plants

중수로 기기냉각수 열교환기 내부 유동 해석

The component cooling water heat exchangers are critical components in a nuclear power plant. As the operation years of the heat exchanger go by, the maintenance costs required for continuous operation also increase. Most heat exchangers have carbon steel shells, tube support plates and flow baffles. The titanium tube is susceptible to flow induced vibration. The damage on carbon steel tube support rod and titanium tube around cooling water entrance area is inevitable. Therefore, analysis of internal flow around the component cooling water entrance and tube channel is a good opportunity to seek for failure prevention practice and maintenance method. The numerical study was carried out by FLUENT code to find out the causes of tube failure and its location.