Closed Brayton cycle power conversion systems for nuclear reactors :

Wright, Steven A.; Lipinski, Ronald J.; Vernon, Milton E.; Sanchez, Travis

doi:10.2172/1177051

Cited by 19 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(21 reference statements)

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“…Wright et al [73] developed models of closed recuperated Brayton cycle driven by heat from a nuclear reactor and these models were subsequently validated. For the model validation, they used nitrogen as working fluid and a capstone C-30 microturbine power generator to provide a small-scale closed Brayton cycle, the SBL-30.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Experimental Research on Supercritical and Transcritical Thermodynamic Cycles Designed for Heat Recovery Application

et al. 2019

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Supercritical operation is considered a main technique to achieve higher cycle efficiency in various thermodynamic systems. The present paper is a review of experimental investigations on supercritical operation considering both heat-to-upgraded heat and heat-to-power systems. Experimental works are reported and subsequently analyzed. Main findings can be summarized as: steam Rankine cycles does not show much studies in the literature, transcritical organic Rankine cycles are intensely investigated and few plants are already online, carbon dioxide is considered as a promising fluid for closed Brayton and Rankine cycles but its unique properties call for a new thinking in designing cycle components. Transcritical heat pumps are extensively used in domestic and industrial applications, but supercritical heat pumps with a working fluid other than CO2 are scarce. To increase the adoption rate of supercritical thermodynamic systems further research is needed on the heat transfer behavior and the optimal design of compressors and expanders with special attention to the mechanical integrity.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Experimental Research on Supercritical and Transcritical Thermodynamic Cycles Designed for Heat Recovery Application

et al. 2019

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“…Few nuclear reactors have been coupled to a CBC besides the ML-1 experimental reactor, which first generated electricity in 1962 and operated for 3 years. This compact, mobile reactor was coupled directly to a recuperated closed-cycle, gas-driven turbomachine [8]. There are potential issues associated with the controllability of reactors and CBC systems.…”

Section: Pcu Testing Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Photograph of Capstone C30 piping modifications to divert the recuperator cold-side outlet stream to external heater unit. Figure 10 include piping connecting four outlet ports to the heater inlet manifold [8]. For MAGNET testing, the externally heated working fluid will be reintroduced to the C30 assembly via the piping modifications implemented by Sandia.…”

Section: Compressor and Turbinementioning

confidence: 99%

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Integration of a Microturbine Power Conversion Unit in MAGNET

Guillen

Wendt

2020

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“…Unlike the previous works that have largely focus on analytical efforts, SNL has done pioneering work by building a test loop. They conducted an experimental study on low pressure closed Brayton cycles [50,51], that forms the basis for the supercritical CO 2 Brayton cycle. In 2010, SNL set up a test loop to research supercritical CO 2 Brayton cycle with very high power densities, high speeds (65 000 RPM), high pressures (13.5 MPa) and very high fluid densities (maximum approx.…”

Section: The Development Of Supercritical Co 2 Brayton Cyclementioning

confidence: 99%

Development and application of simulation tools for supercritical carbon dioxide radial inflow turbine

Qi¹

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Supercritical CO 2 (sCO 2) cycles are considered a promising technology for next generation concentrated solar thermal, waste heat recovery and nuclear applications. Particularly at small to medium scale, where radial inflow turbines can be employed, using sCO 2 results in both system advantages and simplifications of the turbine design, leading to improved performance and cost reductions. Using CO 2 as operating fluid for a radial inflow turbine creates new design, new operating and new modelling challenges. These include mean-line design with enhancing loss models suitable for large dense gas, non-ideal gas behaviour within the blade channel and blade geometry optimisations. Since the supercritical CO 2 has a larger density than the steam or air at the same condition, it might not be adequate to use the well developed loss model to conduct the mean-line design of the whole stage. Since the flow phenomena within the blade channels are complex, involving fluid flow, shock wave position, boundary layer separation, use of the ideal gas model to predict the performance of the turbine might not be adequate. To address these issues, the enhanced one-dimensional loss models, a non-ideal compressible fluid dynamics Riemann solver, and a stator geometry optimiser are developed to create insight on the flow dynamics of supercritical CO 2 radial inflow turbines. The mean-line design results, nonideal compressible fluid dynamics Riemann solver development and stator geometry optimisation are described in details next. The first part aims to provide new insight towards the design of radial turbines for operation with sCO 2 in the 100 kW to 200 kW range. The quasi one-dimensional (1D) mean-line design code TOP-GEN is enhanced to explore and map the radial turbine design space. This mapping process over a state space defined by Head and Flow coefficients allows the selection of an optimum turbine design, while balancing performance and geometrical constraints. By considering three operating points with varying power levels and rotor speeds the effect of these on feasible design space and performance is explored. This provides new insight towards the key geometric features and operational constraints that limit the design space as well as scaling effects. Finally review of the loss breakdown of the designs elucidates the importance of the respective loss mechanisms. Similarly it allows the identification of a design directions that lead to improved performance. Overall this work shows that turbine design with efficiencies in the range 78 % to 82 % are possible in this power range and provides insight into the design space that allows the selection of optimum designs. Next, a new solver for OpenFOAM for non-ideal compressible fluid dynamics is developed. The new solver uses a real-gas Riemann solver, which is based on look-up tables to capture real gas properties. This is achieved by the addition of a new thermodynamic library tightly coupled with the OpenFOAM library. For the solver, the HLLC ALE flux calculator has been modifi...

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Closed Brayton cycle power conversion systems for nuclear reactors :

Cited by 19 publications

References 13 publications

Review of Experimental Research on Supercritical and Transcritical Thermodynamic Cycles Designed for Heat Recovery Application

Review of Experimental Research on Supercritical and Transcritical Thermodynamic Cycles Designed for Heat Recovery Application

Integration of a Microturbine Power Conversion Unit in MAGNET

Development and application of simulation tools for supercritical carbon dioxide radial inflow turbine

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