Simulation of Brayton Cycle and selection of heat exchangers for a small high-temperature gas-cooled reactor

Abstract

HTGR is an advanced gas-cooled reactor that utilized high temperature and high pressure. This work aims to understand the state of the art on HTGR Gas turbine plants with aim of identifying the research gaps and challenges. With this knowledge, we develop a model power conversion system (PCS) for a High-Temperature Gas-cooled reactor. HTGR technology which has been chosen by Indonesian authorities (sponsors of this work), is relatively small with only 10MWth-installed power. Thus, Small Medium Reactor(SMR)-HTGR would be described. This research investigated five different working gases in five PCS Brayton cycle configurations in HTGR 10MWth. Thermodynamic analysis using cold-gas standard assumption was applied to measure the efficiencies. This research also considered temperature interaction in heat exchangers and the capability of a turbine to drive a compressor. Particular gas would be suitable for a particular pressure ratio and PCS diagram. 1T2C diagram with pressure ratio 9 and carbon dioxide as the working gas were able to reach optimum thermal efficiency, which was about 43 %. Double pipe heat exchanger served in Intermediate Heat Exchanger (IHX) and recuperator. The sizing of the heat exchangers determined the dimension as well as pressure drop of this component. The pressure drop of IHX was 413580 Pa for the hot side and 64227 Pa for the cold side and the length was about 37 m. The pressure drop of the recuperator was 700883 Pa for the hot side and 824731 Pa for the cold side and the length was about 70 m.

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