Experimental study on natural circulation and its stability in a heavy liquid metal loop

A Computing Approach with the Heat-Loss Model for the Transient Analysis of Liquid Metal Natural Circulation Loop

The transient behaviors of natural circulation loop (NCL) are important for the system reliability under postulated accidents. The heat loss and structure thermal inertia may influence the transient behaviors of NCL greatly, so a transient analysis model with consideration of heat loss was developed based on the MATLAB/Simulink to predict the thermal-hydraulic characteristic of liquid metal NCL. The transient processes including the start-up, the loss of pump, and the shutdown of thermal-hydraulic ADS lead bismuth loop (TALL) experimental facility were simulated by using the model. A good agreement is obtained to validate the transient model. The appended structure would provide significant thermal inertia and flatten the temperature distribution in the transients. The oscillations of temperature and flow rate are also weakened. The temperature difference between hot leg and cold leg would increase with the decrease of heat loss, so the flow rate increases as well. However, a significant increase of hot section temperature may cause a failure of facility integrity due to the decrease of heat loss. Hence, the full power of the core tank may also be limited.