Investigation of the Heat Transfer Properties of Natural Circulation Flow in the Irradiation Channel of the HFETR

Abstract The High Flux Engineering Test Reactor (HFETR) is a pressurized water reactor with a 125 MW operating capacity that uses beryllium as a reflector and light water as a moderator and coolant. Moreover, it may perform research on how various reactor fuels and materials function under irradiation inside the reactor. Using a separator tube, HFETR has created a number of stagnant water channels to keep the cooling water inside the channels separate from the reactor’s cold removal water. This work describes the use of COMSOL Multiphysics software to construct a flow heat transfer calculation model for the irradiation test of instrumentation materials in the HFETR static water channel. Based on measurements of the cooling water temperature in the channel under different power steps, the accuracy of the calculation model was confirmed. This paper studies the temperature and velocity distribution of the cooling water in the channel under different power steps, and calculates the average convection heat transfer coefficient at the device wall. The results show that the HFETR’s static water channel has a good natural circulation capability, which improves the safety of irradiation test. This also establishes the foundation for the appropriate irradiation tests in the static water channel and the thermal analysis and computation.