• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.22-22
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• 2010

Eutectic composition phase with low melting point which solidifies at the final stage affects the solidification cracking at the intercellular or interdendritic area of welds and castings. If sufficient amount of eutectic composition liquid does not exist between the solidifying phases, the discontinuities remain as cracks. However, abundant amount of liquid eutectic composition existing in the final stage can flow into the discontinuities easily and heal the cracks. By flowing of liquid eutectic and healing of discontinuities, the possibility of cracking can be reduced when the amount of eutectic liquid is sufficient. For the solidification of pure metals, liquid eutectic does not exist and the interlocking of growing solid phases can be realized without interruption of liquid film. Therefore there is little possibility of solidification cracking in the case of welds and castings of pure metal. In a practical sense, the effective way to reduce or prevent the solidification cracking is making the composition of molten pool or melts near to the eutectic composition.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.3879-3891
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• 2021

A heat pipe residual heat removal system is proposed to be incorporated into the reactor driven subcritical (RDS) facility, which has been proposed by MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory for testing and demonstrating the Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (FHR). It aims to reduce the risk of the system operation after the shutdown of the facility. One of the main components of the system is an air-cooled heat pipe heat exchanger. The alkali-metal high-temperature heat pipe was designed to meet the operation temperature and residual heat removal requirement of the facility. The heat pipe model developed in the previous work was adopted to simulate the designed heat pipe and assess the heat transport capability. 3D numerical simulation of the subcritical facility active zone was performed by the commercial CFD software STAR CCM + to investigate the operation characteristics of this proposed system. The thermal resistance network of the heat pipe was built and incorporated into the CFD model. The nominal condition, partial loss of air flow accident and partial heat pipe failure accident were simulated and analyzed. The results show that the residual heat removal system can provide sufficient cooling of the subcritical facility with a remarkable safety margin. The heat pipe can work under the recommended operation temperature range and the heat flux is below all thermal limits. The facility peak temperature is also lower than the safety limits.