High-fidelity Neutronic, Thermal-Mechanical and Heat Pipe Heat Transfer Study of Solid-state Reactors

He Ying; Qiu Meiming; Ma Yugao; Liu Guodong; Huang Shanfang; Wang Kan

doi:10.13832/j.jnpe.2025.S1.0013

Volume 46 Issue S1

Jul. 2025

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He Ying, Qiu Meiming, Ma Yugao, Liu Guodong, Huang Shanfang, Wang Kan. High-fidelity Neutronic, Thermal-Mechanical and Heat Pipe Heat Transfer Study of Solid-state Reactors[J]. Nuclear Power Engineering, 2025, 46(S1): 13-20. doi: 10.13832/j.jnpe.2025.S1.0013

Citation:

He Ying, Qiu Meiming, Ma Yugao, Liu Guodong, Huang Shanfang, Wang Kan. High-fidelity Neutronic, Thermal-Mechanical and Heat Pipe Heat Transfer Study of Solid-state Reactors[J]. Nuclear Power Engineering, 2025, 46(S1): 13-20. doi: 10.13832/j.jnpe.2025.S1.0013

Citation:

He Ying, Qiu Meiming, Ma Yugao, Liu Guodong, Huang Shanfang, Wang Kan. High-fidelity Neutronic, Thermal-Mechanical and Heat Pipe Heat Transfer Study of Solid-state Reactors[J]. Nuclear Power Engineering, 2025, 46(S1): 13-20. doi: 10.13832/j.jnpe.2025.S1.0013

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High-fidelity Neutronic, Thermal-Mechanical and Heat Pipe Heat Transfer Study of Solid-state Reactors

doi: 10.13832/j.jnpe.2025.S1.0013

1.
Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
2.
National Key Laboratory of Nuclear Reactor Technology, Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu, 610213, China

Received Date: 2025-03-01
Rev Recd Date: 2025-04-10
Publish Date: 2025-07-09

Abstract

Abstract

Compared to traditional pressurized water reactors, solid-state reactors operate at higher temperatures, resulting in significant feedback effects due to thermal expansion. This paper proposes a high-fidelity neutronic, thermal-mechanical and heat pipe heat transfer coupling model. Based on the RMC-ANSYS coupling, the heat pipe analysis code HPTRAN is employed to calculate the axial temperature distribution of the heat pipe, providing more accurate boundary conditions for thermal calculations. By decoupling the feedback of fuel and monolith shapes, the model can accurately account for the relative positions, shapes, densities, and temperatures after thermal expansion. Applying the coupling model to multi-physics coupling of a typical solid-state reactor, the $ {k}_{\mathrm{e}\mathrm{f}\mathrm{f}} $ decreases by 570pcm (1pcm = 10⁻⁵) compared with uncoupling, the maximum fuel temperature increases by 41 K, and the maximum monolith temperature increases by 37 K. The axial temperature difference in the heat pipe can reach 200 K, and the radial temperature difference can reach 50 K. Using fixed heat pipe wall temperatures in solid-state reactor multiphysics analysis introduces substantial errors, demonstrating the necessity of introducing heat pipe coupling.
- Solid-state reactor,
- Multi-physics coupling,
- Neutronic Thermal-Mechanical and heat pipe heat transfer coupling

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References(19)

References

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