• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.1416-1428
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• 2021

Pebble flow characteristics can be significantly affected by the configuration of pebble bed, especially for HTGR pebble beds. How to achieve a desired uniform flow pattern without stagnation is the top priority for reactor design. Pebbles flows inside some specially designed pebble bed with arc-shaped contraction configurations at the bottom, including both concave-inward and convex-outward shapes are explored based on discrete element method. Flow characteristics including pebble retention, residence-time frequency density, flow uniformity as well as axial velocity are investigated. The results show that the traditionally designed pebble bed with cone-shape bottom is not the most preferred structure with respect to flow pattern for reactor design. By improving the contraction configuration, the flow performance can be significantly enhanced. The flow in the convex-shape configuration featured by uniformity, consistency and less stagnation, is much more desirable for pebble bed design. In contrast, when the shape is from convex-forward to concave-inward, the flow shows more nonuniformity and stagnation in the corner although the average cross-section axial velocity is the largest due to the dominant middle pebbles.

• 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.