• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2007

Current high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) are based on a closed Brayton cycle with helium gas as the working fluid. Thermodynamic performance of the axial-flow helium gas turbines is of critical concern as it considerably affects the overall cycle efficiency. Helium gas turbines pose some design challenges compared to steam or air turbomachinery because of the physical properties of helium and the uniqueness of the operating conditions at high pressure with low pressure ratio. This report present a review of the helium Brayton cycle experiences in Germany and in Japan. The design and availability of helium gas turbines for HTGR are also presented in this study. We have developed a new throughflow calculation code to calculate the design-point performance of helium gas turbines. Use of the method has been illustrated by applying it to the GTHTR300 reference.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.103-110
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• 2007

The High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) possesses inherent safety features and is recognized as a representative advanced nuclear system for the future. Based on the success of the HTR-10, the long-time operation test and safety demonstration tests were carried out. The long-time operation test verifies that the operation procedure and control method are appropriate for the HTR-10 and the safety demonstration test shows that the HTR-10 possesses inherent safety features with a great margin. Meanwhile, two new projects have been recently launched to further develop HTGR technology. One is a prototype modular plant, denoted as HTR-PM, to demonstrate the commercial capability of the HTGR power plant. The HTR-PM is designed as $2{\times}250$ MWt, pebble bed core with a steam turbine generator that serves as an energy conversion system. The other is a gas turbine generator system coupled with the HTR-10, denoted as HTR-10GT, built to demonstrate the feasibility of the HTGR gas turbine technology. The gas turbine generator system is designed in a single shaft configuration supported by active magnetic bearings (AMB). The HTR-10GT project is now in the stage of engineering design and component fabrication. R&D on the helium turbocompressor, a key component, and the key technology of AMB are in progress.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.109-118
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• 2006

Various indirect power cycle options for a helium cooled gas cooled fast reactor (GFR) with particular focus on a supercritical $CO_2(SCO_2)$ indirect cycle are investigated as an alternative to a helium cooled direct cycle GFR. The balance of plant (BOP) options include helium-nitrogen Brayton cycle, supercritical water Rankine cycle, and $SCO_2$ recompression Brayton power cycle in three versions: (1) basic design with turbine inlet temperature of $550^{\circ}C$, (2) advanced design with turbine inlet temperature of $650^{\circ}C$ and (3) advanced design with the same turbine inlet temperature and reduced compressor inlet temperature. The indirect $SCO_2$ recompression cycle is found attractive since in addition to easier BOP maintenance it allows significant reduction of core outlet temperature, making design of the primary system easier while achieving very attractive efficiencies comparable to or slightly lower than, the efficiency of the reference GFR direct cycle design. In addition, the indirect cycle arrangement allows significant reduction of the GFR &proximate-containment& and the BOP for the $SCO_2$ cycle is very compact. Both these factors will lead to reduced capital cost.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.170-175
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• 2008

In this study, it was investigated that the characteristics of startup and compatibility using several type hot and cold gases. The characteristics of starting LRE by pyro starter was compared with that by a Helium spinner. The compatibility of pyro gas, a gaseous Helium, Hydrogen+Nitrogen mixture gas, and air was investigated by a simple 1D turbine analysis considered the properties of each gas and turbine efficiency. Most of them were compatible to start up the LRE however air was properly used only for low power mode of turbine.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.1482-1494
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• 2022

Power conversion cycles (Subcritical Steam, Supercritical Steam, Open Air Brayton, Recuperated Air Brayton, Combined Cycle, Closed Brayton Supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂), and Stirling) are evaluated for land-based nuclear microreactors based on technical maturity, system efficiency, size, cost and maintainability, safety implications, and siting considerations. Based upon these criteria, Air Brayton systems were selected for further evaluation. A brief history of the development and applications of Brayton power systems is given, followed by a description of how these thermal-to-electrical energy conversion systems might be integrated with a nuclear microreactor. Modeling is performed for optimized cycles operating at 3 MW(e) with turbine inlet temperatures of 500 ℃, 650 ℃ and 850 ℃, corresponding to: a) sodium fast, b) molten salt or heat pipe, and c) helium or sodium thermal reactors, coupled with three types of Brayton power conversion units (PCUs): 1) simple open-cycle gas turbine, 2) recuperated open-cycle gas turbine, and 3) recuperated and intercooled open-cycle gas turbine. Aeroderivative turboshaft engines employing the simple Brayton cycle and two industrial gas turbine engines employing recuperated air Brayton cycles are also analyzed. These engines offer mature technology that can facilitate near-term deployment with a modest improvement in efficiency.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.49-56
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• 2004

A heated and expanded helium is used to pressurize liquid propellants in propellant tanks of propulsion system of liquid propellant launch vehicles. To produce a heated and expanded helium, an hot-gas heat exchanger is used by utilizing heat source from an exhausted gas, which was generated in a gas generator to operate turbine of turbo-pump and dumped out through an exhaust duct of engine. Both experimental and numerical approaches of hot-gas heat exchanger design were conducted in the present study. Experimentally, siliconites - electrical resistance types - were used to simulate the full heat condition instead of an exhausted gas. Cryogenic heat exchangers, which were immersed in a liquid nitrogen pool, were used to feed cryogenic gaseous helium in a hot-gas heat exchanger. Numerical simulation was made using commercially utilized solver - Fluent V.6.0 - to validate experimental results. Helically coiled stainless steel pipe and stainless steel exhausted duct were consisted of tetrahedron unstructured mesh. Helium was a working fluid Inside helical heat coil and regarded as an ideal gas. Realizable k-』 turbulent modeling was adopted to take turbulent mixing effects in consideration. Comparisons between experimental results and numerical solutions are Presented. It is observed that a resulted hot-gas heat exchanger design is reliable based on the comparison of both results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.9-20
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• 2007

Design study on the Gas Turbine High Temperature Reactor 300-Cogeneration (GTHTR300C) aiming at producing both electricity by a gas turbine and hydrogen by a thermochemical water splitting method (IS process method) has been conducted. It is expected to be one of the most attractive systems to provide hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles after 2030. The GTHTR300C employs a block type Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) with thermal power of 600MW and outlet coolant temperature of $950^{\circ}C$. The intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) and the gas turbine are arranged in series in the primary circuit. The IHX transfers the heat of 170MW to the secondary system used for hydrogen production. The balance of the reactor thermal power is used for electricity generation. The GTHTR300C is designed based on the existing technologies of the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) and helium turbine power conversion and on the technologies whose development have been well under way for IS hydrogen production process so as to minimize cost and risk of deployment. This paper describes the original design features focusing on the plant layout and plant cycle of the GTHTR300C together with present development status of the GTHTR300, IHX, etc. Also, the advantage of the GTHTR300C is presented.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.1068-1071
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• 2017

The turbine exhaust system consists of a turbine flange, heat exchanger, exhaust duct and thrust nozzle. Heat exchanger is used for the launch vehicle because of the advantage of reducing the weight of the helium gas and the storage tank by using the heat exchanger pressurization method compared to the cold gas pressurizing method. Since the gas generator is combusted in fuel-rich condition, the soot is contained in the combustion gas. Hence, the heat exchanger should be designed considering the reduction of the heat exchange efficiency due to the soot effect. In addition, the uncertainty of the heat exchange calculation and the evaluation of the influence of the combustion gas soot on the heat exchange can not be completely calculated, so the design requirements must include a structure that can guarantee and control the temperature of the heat exchanger outlet. In this paper, it is described that the component allocation, the design method considering the manufacture of internal structure, the advantages of new concept of nozzle design.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.875-884
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• 2009

We present three nuclear/hydrogen-related R&D activities being performed at KAIST: air-ingressed LOCA analysis code development, gas turbine analysis tool development, and hydrogen-production system analysis model development. The ICE numerical technique widely used for the safety analysis of water-reactors is successfully implemented into GAMMA, with which we solve the basic equations for continuity, momentum conservation, energy conservation of the gas mixture, and mass conservation of 6 species (He, N2, O2, CO, CO2, and H2O). GAMMA has been extensively validated using data from 14 test facilities. We developed a tool to predict the characteristics of HTGR helium turbines based on the throughflow calculation with a Newton-Raphson method that overcomes the weakness of the conventional method based on the successive iteration scheme. It is found that the current method reaches stable and quick convergence even under the off-normal condition with the same degree of accuracy. The dynamic equations for the distillation column of HI process are described with 4 material components involved in the HI process: H2O, HI, I2, H2. For the HI process we improved the Neumann model based on the NRTL (Non-Random Two-Liquid) model. The improved Neumann model predicted a total pressure with 8.6% maximum relative deviation from the data and 2.5% mean relative deviation, and liquid-liquid-separation with 9.52% maximum relative deviation from the data.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.447-453
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• 1999

In MHD power generation system, enthalpy of the working gas is convened to electric power directly through expansion in generator channel. It means that electric power can be generated without a moving mechanical linkage such as turbine blades. The principle of MHD generation is based on Faraday'law of induction that eletromotive force(u$\times$B) is generated when the working gas of velocity u flows a channel in which magnetic field of strength(B) exists. In this paper, helium gas seeded with cesium is used as working gas. There are two types of generator in MHD generation; linear type faraday and disk type hall generator. Rogowski coils having the bandwidth of the 100(Hz) ~ 20(kHz) were used for measuring current flowing MHD disk channel. Optimum load resistor value of the MHD generator studied was 2.5[$\Omega$]. Disk type hall generator's generation performance is the main target of this paper, which superiors to linear type Faraday generator in many points. Isentropic efficiency and enthalpy extraction rate of disk type shock tube driven hall generator is discussed here.