Particle-Scale Investigation of Thermal Radiation in Nuclear Packed Pebble Beds

For the heat transfer of pebble or granular beds (e.g., high temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGR)), the particle thermal radiation is an important part. Using the subcell radiation model (SCM), which is a generic theoretical approach to predict effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of particle radiation, particle-scale investigation of the nuclear packed pebble beds filled with monosized or multicomponent pebbles is performed here. When the radial porosity distribution is considered, the ETC of the particle radiation decreases significantly at near-wall region. It is shown that radiation exchange factor increases with the surface emissivity. The results of the SCM under different surface emissivity are in good agreement with the existing correlations. The discrete heat transfer model in particle scale is presented, which combines discrete element method (DEM) and particle radiation model, and is validated by the transient experimental results. Compared with the discrete simulation results of polydisperse beds, it is found that the SCM with the effective particle diameter can be used to analyze behavior of the radiation in polydisperse beds.