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In light of rising global temperatures and energy needs, nuclear power is uniquely positioned to offer carbon-free and reliable electricity. In many markets, nuclear power faces strong headwinds due to competition with other fuel sources and prohibitively high capital costs. Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), such as the proposed Advanced Fast Reactor (AFR) 100, have gained popularity in recent years as they promise economies of scale, reduced capital costs, and flexibility of deployment. Fast sodium reactors commonly feature an upper plenum with a large inventory of sodium. When temperatures change due to transients, stratification can occur. It is important to understand the stratification behavior of these large volumes because stratification can counteract natural circulation and fatigue materials. This work features steady-state and transient simulations of thermal stratification and natural circulation of liquid sodium in a simple rectangular slice using a commercial CFD code (ANSYS FLUENT). Different inlet velocities and their effect on stratification are investigated by changing the inlet geometry. Stratification was observed in the two cases with the lowest inlet velocities. An approach for tracking the stratification interface was developed that focuses on temperature gradients rather than differences. Other authors have developed correlations to predict stratification in three dimensional enclosures. However, these correlations predict stratified conditions for all simulations even the ones that did not stratify. The previous models are modified to reflect the two-dimensional nature of the flow in the enclosure. The results align more closely with the simulations and correctly predict stratification in the investigated cases. / Master of Science

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1957.

La plupart des objets astrophysiques, comme les planètes ou les étoiles, produisent leur proprechamp magnétique à partir d’une forte agitation d’un fluide conducteur d’électricité comme un métalen fusion ou un plasma ionique. Un champ magnétique de grande échelle est alors crée lorsqueles mouvements de ce fluide génèrent des courants induits suffisamment intenses pour compenserla dissipation Ohmique du système. Ceci est vrai pour des dynamiques à haut nombre de Reynoldsmagnétique Rm = UL/h (U et L sont la vitesse et la longueur caractéristique du système et h la diffusivitémagnétique). Il est connu, que l’écoulement moyen d’un fluide en rotation peut produire unchamp magnétique de grande échelle en cisaillant les lignes d’un champ magnétique déjà présentdans le système. Il s’agit de l’effet Omega. Cependant, un tel processus d’induction ne permet pasd’obtenir une dynamo qui s’auto-entretienne, celle-ci a donc besoin d’un mécanisme d’inductionsupplémentaire pour exister. Ainsi, on fait souvent appelle aux mouvements turbulents de petiteséchelles pour fournir l’ingrédient manquant à l’effet dynamo.Les contributions des fluctuations turbulentes au champ magnétique moyen font l’objet d’une étudeapprofondie dans notre expérience de Couette sphérique soumise à un fort champ magnétique.Notre dispositif expérimental, appelé Derviche Tourneur Sodium (DTS), est une expérience en sodiumliquide conçue pour explorer le régime magnétostrophique du noyau terrestre où les forcesde Coriolis et de Lorentz sont à l’équilibre.De nombreuses mesures sont réalisées au sein de notre expérience et nous obtenons par méthodeinverse des profils radiaux de la force électromotrice moyenne, exprimée en terme d’effets alpha etbeta, et des cartes de l’écoulement moyen pour des Reynolds magnétique allant Rm = 30 à 100. Il résultede ces inversions que les fluctuations turbulentes de l’écoulement peuvent être modélisées parune forte contribution à la diffusivité magnétique, négative dans la région interne et positive prés dela sphère externe. Une simulation numérique directe de l’expérience appuie également ce résultat.La réduction de la diffusivité magnétique effective par les mouvements de petites échelles impliqueque la turbulence peut aider à l’auto-génération d’un champ magnétique de grande échelle. De cepoint de vue la turbulence est un ingrédient favorisant l’effet dynamo. / Earth, Sun and many other astrophysical bodies produce their own magnetic field by dynamoaction, where induction of magnetic field by fluid motion overcomes the Joule dissipation when themagnetic Reynolds number Rm = UL/h is large enough (U and L are characteristic velocity andlength-scale and h the magnetic diffusivity). Large scale motion of a conducting medium shearingpre-existing magnetic field lines is a well known process to produce large scale magnetic field by omega-effect. However, such a process cannot sustain a self-excited dynamo and small-scaleturbulent motions are usually invoked as the appropriate mechanism to dynamo action.The contribution of turbulent fluctuations to the induction of mean magnetic field is investigated inour liquid sodium spherical Couette experiment, with an imposed magnetic field. Our experimentaldevice, named Derviche Tourneur Sodium (DTS), has been designed to explore the magnetostrophicregime of the Earth outer core where Coriolis and Lorentz forces are in balance.Many measurements are used through an inversion technique to obtain radial profiles of the meanelectromotrice force, expended interns of alpha and beta effects, together with the mean flow atmagnetic Reynolds number Rm = 30 up to 100. It appears that the small scale turbulent fluctuationscan be modeled as a strong contribution to the magnetic diffusivity which is negative in the interiorregion and positive close to the outer shell. Direct numerical simulations of our experiment supportthese results. The lowering of the effective magnetic diffusivity by small scale fluctuations impliesthat turbulence can actually help to achieve self-generation of large scale magnetic fields.

This master thesis deals steam generator for ESFR (European Sodium Fast Reactor), which is heated by liquid sodium. In the beginning chapters, there are theoretic information about ESFR's parameters and its' comparison with ohter types of heat exchangers in nuclear reactors with the same principal (sodium as a coolant). Then designing part follows, which contents of introduction of calculations, option of material and conception of heater. Computational part on its own includes thermal, hydraulic and stress calculations and comparison with aspects in nuclear safety and security.

<p>  </p> <p>Advanced high temperature fluid reactors (AR), such as sodium fast reactors (SFR) and molten salt cooled reactors (MSCR) are promising nuclear energy options, which offer lower levelized electricity costs compared to existing light water reactors (LWR). Increasing economic competitiveness of ARs in the open market involves developing strategies for reducing operation and maintenance (O&M) costs. Digitization of AR’s allows to implement continuous on-line monitoring paradigm to achieve early detection of incipient problems, and thus reduce O&M costs. Machine learning (ML) algorithms offer a number of advantages for reactor monitoring through anticipation of key performance variables using data-driven process models. ML model does not require detailed knowledge of the system, which could be difficult to obtain or unavailable because of commercial privacy restrictions. In addition, any data obtained from sensors or through various ML models need to be securely transmitted under all possible conditions, including those of cyber-attacks. Quantum information processing offers promising solutions to these threats by establishing secure communications, due to unique properties of entanglement and superposition in quantum physics. More specifically, quantum key distribution (QKD) algorithms can be used to generate and transmit keys between the reactor and a remote user. In one of popular QKD communication protocols, BB84, the symmetric keys are paired with an advanced encryption standard (AES) protocol protecting the information. Another challenge in sensor measurements is the noise, which can affect the accuracy and reliability of the measured values. The presence of noise in sensor measurements can lead to incorrect interpretations of the data, and therefore, it is crucial to develop effective signal processing techniques to improve the quality of measurements. </p> <p>In this study, we develop several variations of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) and test their ability to predict future values of thermocouple measurements. Data obtained by a heat-up experiment conducted in a liquid sodium experimental facility is used for training and testing the RNNs. The method of extrapolation is also explored using measurements of different sensors to train and test a network. We then examine through computer simulations the potential of secure real-time communication of monitoring information using the BB84 protocol. Finally, signal analysis is performed with Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) sensor signals to analyze and correlate the prediction results with the results obtained by the analysis of the time series in the frequency domain. Using information from the frequency analysis, we apply cutoff filters in the original time series and test again the performance of the networks. Results show that the ML models developed in this work can be efficiently used for forecasting of thermocouple measurements, as they provide Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values lower than the measurement uncertainty of the thermocouples. Extrapolation produces good results, with performance related to the Euclidean distance between the sets of time series. Moreover, the results from the utilization of the BB84 protocol to securely transmit the measurements prove the feasibility of secure real-time communication of monitoring information. The application of the cutoff filters provided more accurate predictions of the thermocouple measurements than in the case of the unfiltered signals.</p> <p>The suit of computational tools developed in this work is shown to be efficient and promises to have a positive impact on improving performance of an AR.</p>

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) is one of the most promising renewable energybased electricity generation technologies to deal with the increasing demand of power consumption and environmental sustainability. With the aim of achieving the 2020 SunShot cost target for CSP of 60 USD/MWh, the United States Department of Energy presented, in May 2018, the Gen3 CSP initiative. In particular, the CSP Gen3 Liquid-Phase Pathway proposes to design a CSP system adopting liquid sodium as Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) in the receiver, advanced high-temperature molten chloride salt as storage fluid and supercritical CO2 (sCO2) Brayton cycle as power cycle. Within this framework, the aim of this master thesis was to design the sodium-chloride salt Heat Exchanger (HX) by developing both a heat exchanger model and a sodiumsalt-sCO2 system model. To pursue these purposes, a completely new Modelica-based HX model was developed and added to the SolarTherm library. Furthermore, as an extension of earlier models, the sodium-salt-sCO2 CSP system (NaSaltsCO2System) was implemented in SolarTherm, by incorporating the HX model and linking it with other new and existing component models. As for the HX, a general model was developed for shell and tube heat exchangers, based on the TEMA guidelines, with the possibility of being customized in terms of media adopted, constraints, boundary conditions, and correlations. The model performs an optimization in order to select the internal geometry configuration that optimizes a user-defined objective-function. By employing the implemented HX model in the NaSaltsCO2System, the sodium-salt heat exchanger was designed aiming at minimizing the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE), providing a complete geometry description, and an estimation of the performances and costs. The resulting NaSaltsCO2System model was found to be robust and able to perform annual simulations that allowed to estimate the energy performances of the CSP plant, as well as the LCOE. Considering the sodium-salt-sCO2 CSP system characterized by a receiver capacity of 543 MWth, 12 hours of Thermal Energy Storage (TES), and a 100 MWe power block, the LCOE resulted equal to 72.66 USD/MWh. The sodium-salt HX design that minimizes the LCOE resulted in a single-shell/single tube pass configuration, with vertical alignment, characterized by an overall height of 15 m, and a shell diameter of 1.8 m. It represents the 3.2% of the total capital cost of the plant. An interesting system-level optimization was then carried out on the combined receiver-heat exchanger block. It regarded the variation of the Log Mean Temperature Difference (LMTD) of the HX and highlighted the possibility to drop the LCOE down to 68.54 USD/MWh. The techno-economic investigations and the sensitivity analysis showed the flexibility and robustness of the HX model, as well as the importance of the NaSaltsCO2System. The latter lays the groundwork to explore potential improvements of this new generation of CSP systems, which can play a fundamental role in the future global energy mix. / Termisk solkraft (CSP) är en av de mest lovande elproduktionsteknologierna baserade på förnybar energi. Den kan bidra till hanteringen av den ökande efterfrågan på energi och miljömässig hållbarhet. I syfte att uppnå 2020 SunShot-kostnadsmålet för CSP på 60 USD/MWh presenterade USA:s energidepartement Gen3 CSPinitiativet. I synnerhet föreslår CSP Gen Liquid-Phase Pathway att utforma ett CSPsystem som använder flytande natrium som värmeöverföringsvätska i mottagaren, smält kloridsalt med hög temperatur som lagringsvätska, samt superkritisk CO2 (sCO2) Brayton-cykel som kraftcykel. Syftet för detta examensarbete var att utforma natriumkloridsaltets primära värmeväxlare genom att utveckla både en värmeväxlarmodell (HX) modell och en natriumsalt-sCO2-systemmodell. För att fullfölja dessa syften utvecklades HX-modellen först, sedan implementerades natriumsalt-sCO2 CSP-systemet NaSaltsCO2System. Båda verktygen utvecklades med hjälp av Modelica som programmeringsspråk. De finns nu tillgängliga i det öppna SolarTherm-biblioteket. När det gäller HX utvecklades en allmän modell för skal- och rörvärmeväxlare med möjligheten att anpassas när det gäller antagna medium, begränsningar, gränsvillkor och korrelationer. Dessutom utförde modellen en optimering för att välja den interna geometri-konfigurationen som optimerar en användardefinierad objektiv-funktion. Genom att använda den implementerade HX-modellen i NaSaltsCO2System designades natriumsalt-värmeväxlaren, vilket gav en fullständig konfiguration-beskrivning och en uppskattning av prestanda och kostnader. Den utvecklade NaSaltsCO2System-modellen visade sig vara robust och kapabel till att utföra simuleringar på årsbasis. Detta gjorde det möjligt att uppskatta CSP-anläggningens energiprestanda samt LCOE. Det utvecklade natriumsalt-sCO2 CSP-systemet som känneteckna des av en mottagarkapacitet på 543 MWth, 12 timmars TES och ett 100 MWe power block, resulterade i en LCOE på 72.66 USD/MWh. Natrium-salt HX-konstruktionen som minimerade LCOE resulterade i en enskalig/enkel rörpassningskonfiguration, med vertikal inriktning, kännetecknad av en total höjd av 15 m och en skaldiameter på 1.8 m. Det motsvarade 3.2% av anläggningens totala kapitalkostnad. Den mest intressanta systemoptimeringen genomfördes på det kombinerade blocket bestående av mottagare och värmeväxlare. Den behandlade variationen av HX:s LMTD och framhöll möjligheten att sänka LCOE till 68.54 USD/MWh. De teknisk-ekonomiska undersökningarna och känslighetsanalysen visade flexibiliteten och robustheten i HX-modellen, liksom vikten av NaSaltsCO2Systemet. Den senare lägger grunden för att utforska potentiella förbättringar av denna nya generation av CSP-system, som kan spela en grundläggande roll i den framtida globala energimixen.