• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.699-714
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• 2021

Supercritical CO₂ (S-CO₂) Brayton cycle has been applied to various heat sources in recent decades, owing to the characteristics of compact structure and high efficiency. Understanding the research development in this emerging research field is crucial for future study. Thus, a bibliometric approach is employed to analyze the scientific publications of S-CO₂ cycle field from 2000 to 2019. In Scopus database, there were totally 724 publications from 1378 authors and 543 institutes, which were distributed over 55 countries. Based on the software-BibExcel, these publications were analyzed from various aspects, such as major research areas, affiliations and keyword occurrence frequency. Furthermore, parameters such as citations, hot articles were also employed to evaluate the research output of productive countries, institutes and authors. The analysis showed that each paper has been cited 13.39 times averagely. United States was identified as the leading country in S-CO₂ research followed by China and South Korea. Based on the contents of publications, existing researches on S-CO₂ are briefly reviewed from the five aspects, namely application, cycle configurations and modeling, CO₂-based mixtures, system components, and experiments. Future development is suggested to accelerate the commercialization of S-CO₂ power system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.3540-3550
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• 2022

The supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO₂) Brayton cycle is an important energy conversion technology for the fourth generation of nuclear energy. Since the printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) used in the S-CO₂ Brayton cycle has narrow channels, Rayleigh-Bénard (RB) convection is likely to exist in the tiny channels. However, there are very few studies on RB convection in supercritical fluids. Current research on RB convection mainly focuses on conventional fluids such as water and air that meet the Boussinesq assumption. It is necessary to study non-Boussinesq fluids. PRB convection refers to RB convection that is affected by horizontal incoming flow. In this paper, the computational fluid dynamics simulation method is used to study the PRB convection phenomenon of non-Boussinesq fluid-supercritical carbon dioxide. The result shows that the inlet Reynolds number (Re) of the horizontal incoming flow significantly affects the PRB convection. When the inlet Re remains unchanged, with the increase of Rayleigh number (Ra), the steady-state convective pattern of the fluid layer is shown in order: horizontal flow, local traveling wave, traveling wave convection. If Ra remains unchanged, as the inlet Re increases, three convection patterns of traveling wave convection, local traveling wave, and horizontal flow will appear in sequence. To characterize the relationship between traveling wave convection and horizontal incoming flow, this paper proposes the relationship between critical Reynolds number and relative Rayleigh number (r).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.877-887
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• 2022

A new reactor concept is described that directly couples a supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) power cycle with a CO₂-cooled, heavy water moderated pressure tube core. This configuration attains the simplification and economic potential of past direct-cycle sCO₂ concepts, while also providing safety and power density benefits by using the moderator as a heat sink for decay heat removal. A 200 MWe design is described that heavily leverages existing commercial nuclear technologies, including reactor and moderator systems from Canadian CANDU reactors and fuels and materials from UK Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGRs). Descriptions are provided of the power cycle, nuclear island systems, reactor core, and safety systems, and the results of safety analyses are shown illustrating the ability of the design to withstand large-break loss of coolant accidents. The resulting design attains high efficiency while employing considerably fewer systems than current light water reactors and advanced reactor technologies, illustrating its economic promise. Prospects for the design are discussed, including the ability to demonstrate its technologies in a small (~20 MWe) initial system, and avenues for further improvement of the design using advanced technologies.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.60-65
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• 2014

In this paper, cycle performance analysis for heating capacity, compression work and COP of R134a supercritical heat pump is presented to offer the basic design data for the operating parameters of the system. The operating parameters considered in this study include superheating degree, pressure and outlet temperature of gas cooler, compressor efficiency and evaporating temperature in the R134a supercritical heat pump system. The main results were summarized as follows : Superheating degree, pressure and outlet temperature of gas cooler, compressor efficiency and evaporating temperature of R134a heat pump system have an effect on the heating capacity, compression work and COP of this system. With a thorough grasp of these effect, it is necessary to design the supercritical heat pump using R134a. The prediction for COP of R134a supercritical heat pump have been proposed through multiple regression analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.47-48
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.403-410
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• 2020

This paper focuses on the design of a 12-kW small-scale supercritical CO₂ test loop. A theoretical study, stabilization, and optimization of carbon dioxide were carried out with the application of a solar heat source based on solar thermal data in Pohang. The thermodynamic cycle of the test facility is a Rankine cycle (transcritical cycle), which contains liquid, gas, and supercritical CO₂. The system is designed to achieve 6.98% efficiency at a maximum pressure of 12 MPa and a maximum temperature of 70℃. In addition, the optimum turbine inlet temperature and pressure were calculated to increase the cycle efficiency, and the application of an internal heat exchanger (IHX) was simulated. It was found that the maximum efficiency increases to 18.75%. The simulation confirmed that the efficiency of the cycle is 6.7% in May and 6.26% in June.

• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.39 no.10
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• pp.787-793
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• 2015

In response to the growing interest in supercritical carbon dioxide ($S-CO_2$) power cycle technology because of its potential enhancement in compactness and efficiency, the $S-CO_2$ cycles have been studied intensively in the fields of nuclear power, concentrated solar power (CSP), and fossil fuel power generation. Despite this interest, there are relatively few studies on waste heat recovery applications. In this study, the $S-CO_2$ cycle that has a split flow with preheating was modeled and simulated. The variation in the power was investigated with respect to the changes in the value of a design parameter. Under the simulation conditions considered in this study, it was confirmed that the design parameter has an optimal value that can maximize the power in the $S-CO_2$ power cycle that has a split flow with preheating.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.153-160
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• 2020

In this paper, we present a hydrostatic bearing design and rotordynamic analysis of a pump-and-drive turbine module for a 250-kW supercritical CO₂ cycle application. The pump-and-drive turbine module consists of the pump and turbine wheel, assembled to a shaft supported by two hydrostatic radial and thrust bearings. The rated speed is 21,000 rpm and the rated power is 143 kW. For the bearing operation, we use high-pressure CO₂ as the lubricant, which is supplied to the bearing through the orifice restrictor. We calculate the bearing stiffness and flow rate for various orifice diameters, and then select the diameter that provides the maximum bearing stiffness. We also conduct a rotordynamic analysis based on the design parameters of the pump-and-drive turbine module. The predicted Campbell diagram shows that there is no critical speed below the rated speed, owing to the high stiffness of the bearings. Furthermore, the predicted damping ratio indicates that there is no unstable mode. We conduct the operating tests for the pump and drive turbine modules within the supercritical CO₂ cycle test loop. The pressurized CO₂, at a temperature of 136℃, is supplied to the turbine and we monitor the shaft vibration during the test. The test results show that there is no critical speed below the rated speed, and the shaft vibration is controlled to below 3 ㎛.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1786-1795
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• 2021

Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE) is a widely used heat exchanger in the supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO₂) Brayton cycle because it can work under high temperature and pressure, and has been a hot topic in Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) projects for use as recuperators and condensers. Most previous studies focused on channel structures or shapes. However, no clear advancement has so far been seen in the allover size of the PCHE. In this paper, we proposed an optimal size of the PCHE with a fixed volume. Two boundary conditions of PCHE were simulated, respectively. When the volume of PCHE was fixed, the heat transfer rate and pressure loss were picked as the optimization objectives. The Pareto front was obtained by the Multi-objective optimization procedure. We got the optimized number of PCHE channels under two different boundary conditions from the Pareto front. The comprehensive performance can be increased by 5.3% while holding in the same volume. The numerical results from this study can be used to improve the design of PCHE with straight channels.