Thermal Analysis Of A Nuclear Power Plant Heat Pipe Exchanger Using Ansys

Abstract

Heat pipes are a unique type of heat transfer device that can transport large amounts of heat through a small cross sectional area, with minimal temperature differences. A heat pipe is made up of a pipe or tube and a base fluid. In practice, the heat pipe is poured into a mould that is compatible with the cooling media. These devices have found uses in a variety of fields, including space apparatus, solar energy systems, electronic equipment, and air conditioning systems, due to their simplicity of design and ease of manufacture and maintenance.
Using heat pipe-cooled micro-reactors in power plants is one of the newest technologies in small power plants. In these power plants, heat is taken from the reactor by several heat pipes and transferred to the working fluid in the main heat exchanger of the power plant.
The present work focused on the design and thermal analysis of heat pipe used in nuclear power plant. Three models namely Model-1, Model-2 and Model-3 were modeled in CATIA software. Thermal analysis was carried out on these models with steel and copper material properties in ANSYS software. Finally optimum model with suitable material was suggested for the heat pipe.