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Experimental research on natural circulation characteristics of passive residual heat removal system for molten salt reactor   CHEN Kailun1,2, YAN Changqi1, FAN Guangming1, MENG Zhaoming1, and DING  Tao1   1.     Fundamental Science on Nuclear Safety and Simulation Technology Laboratory, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China (kailunchen@hrbeu.edu.cn, changqi_yan@163.com). 2.     Zhejiang Electric Power Design Institute Co., Ltd., China Energy Engineering Group, Hangzhou 310012, China. Abstract: A full-scale passive residual heat removal system for 2 MW molten salt reactor has been designed and constructed to perform experimental studies. The present research aims at investigating the transient behaviors of natural circulation during the start-up process, as well as steady state natural circulation characteristics. It is seen that fluid within the loop remains stagnant for a long period at the beginning, and natural circulation will not initiate until boiling occurs in the heating section, which is resulted from the special structure of cooling thimble. Six cooling thimbles are used in the system. At normal operation temperature of 643℃, each cooling thimble has a heat carrying capacity of 2665 W. It is found that for heat transfer from thimble tube to bayonet tube, radiation and conduction heat transfer dominate in steady state conditions and start-up transient, respectively. In addition, for two-phase natural circulation in the cooling thimble, the correlation between mass flow rate and heat transfer rate has been analyzed. Keywords: passive; residual heat removal; start-up; natural circulation; heat transfer
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