Design Optimization of Gas Separator in High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor through Numerical Simulation Method

The gas separator is the key apparatus of the fuel handling and storage system in High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor(HTGR), the flow field and pressure field in the gas separator with different design schemes were studied with computational fluid dynamics program FLUENT, which could provide theoretical evidence for design optimization of the gas separator. The result showed that impinging jet was detected in the initial design scheme, which caused vortex generation, besides, the interaction between impinging jet led to vortex between small holes. The size and number of the small holes in the horizontal pipe wall had significant effect on reducing the flow resistance. The pressure drop of the gas separator could decrease significantly by increasing the holes number under the vertical pipe as much as possible, which could reduce the mix between the jet and the surface. The pressure drop in the final design fell to about half of the value compared with the initial design scheme, which could reduce the energy consumption, and improve the system operation's stability. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.