No description available.

An overall systems design code was developed to model an advanced in-core thermionic energy conversion based nuclear reactor system for space applications at power levels of 10 to 50 kWe. The purpose of this work was to provide the overall shell for the systems code and to also provide the detailed neutronic analysis section of the code. The design code that was developed is to be used to evaluate a reactor system based upon a single cell thermionic fuel element which uses advanced technology to enhance the performance of single cell thermionic fuel elements. A literature survey provided information concerning how other organizations performed system studies on similar space reactor designs. / Graduation date: 1994

Incore thermionic space reactor design concepts which operate at a nominal power output range of 20 to 50 kWe are described. Details of the neutronic, thermionic, thermal hydraulics and shielding performance are presented. Due to the strong absorption of thermal neutrons by natural tungsten, and the large amount of that material within the reactor core, two designs are considered. An overall system design code has been developed at Oregon State University to model advanced incore thermionic energy conversion based nuclear reactor systems for space applications. The code modules include neutronics and core criticality, a thermionic fuel element performance module with integral thermal hydraulics calculation capability, a radiation shielding module, and a module for the waste heat rejection. The results show that the driverless single cell ATI configuration, which does not have driver rods, proved to be more efficient than the driven core, which has driver rods. It also shows that the inclusion of the true axial and radial power distribution decrease the overall conversion efficiency. The flattening of the radial power distribution by three different methods would lead to a higher efficiency. The results show that only one thermionic fuel element (TFE) works at the optimum emitter temperature; all other TFEs are off the optimum performance and result in 40 % decrease of the efficiency of the overall system. / Graduation date: 1993

Preliminary nuclear design studies have been completed on ten configurations of nuclear reactors for low power (1-30 kWe) space applications utilizing thermionic energy conversion. Additional design studies have been conducted on the TRICE multimegawatt in-core thermionic reactor configuration. In each of the cases, a reactor configuration has been determined which has the potential for operating 7 years with sufficient reactivity margin. Additional safety evaluations have been conducted on these configurations including the determination of sufficient shutdown reactivity, and consideration of water immersion, water flooding, sand burial, and reactor compaction accident scenarios. It has been found, within the analysis conducted using the MCNP Monte Carlo neutron transport code, that there are configurations which are feasible and deserve further analysis. It has also been found that solid core reactors which rely solely on conduction for heat removal as well as pin type cores immersed in a liquid metal bath have merit. The solid cores look attractive when flooding and compaction accident scenarios are considered as there is little chance for water to enter the core and cause significant neutron moderation. A fuel volume fraction effect has also been found in the consideration of the sand burial cases for the SP-100 derived configurations. / Graduation date: 1994

No description available.

A rotating, flat plate condensation experiment has been developed to investigate the heat of the Rotating Bubble Membrane Radiator (RBMR). The RBMR is a proposed heat rejection system for space applications which uses working fluid condensation on the inside surface of a rotating sphere to reject heat to space. The flat plate condensation heat transfer experiment simulates the microgravity environment of space by orienting the axis of rotation parallel to the gravitational vector and normal to the surface of the plate. The condensing surface is cooled to simulate the rejection of heat to cold surface. The working fluid is a super heated steam. The results obtained include relationships between the overall heat transfer coefficient as a function of the temperature difference between the working fluid and a cold environment, both placed in dimensionless groups, and plate angular rotational speeds. This empirical relationship is useful for choosing the optimum rotational speed for the flat plate radiator given a desired heat rejection load. A RBMR prototype, using full sphere shell, was designed and built completely in this research efforts and ready to be tested in future planned experiments in microgravity environment. This RBMR is the first one ever built to investigate the RBMR concepts experimentally. This study also provides the basis for designing new heat rejection systems utilizing centrifugal forces and condensation phenomena in both space and ground applications. / Graduation date: 1993