ORNL-2106 - the Molten Salt Energy Technologies Web Site

The parameters of the’experiment were the follow-
ing:
Helical Reynolds modulus
Prandtl number
66,000 to 256,000
4 to s
Axial temperatwe rise 5 to 10°F
Total power generated 0.08 to 0.12 MW
The heat balances obtained for the system were
within *5% of being perfect. Two power runs were
also made with the swirl entrance system for
the simulated case of “one pump off.”
A photograph of the one-half-scale model used
for these experiments is presented in Fig. 4.1.5;
it is made almost entirely of Micarta and platinum.
The mixing chamber, pump-scroll head, core,
power leads, and thermocouple leads for the outer
core shell can be identified in the photograph.
The panel board containing recording and power
control equipment for the experiments is shown
in Fig. 4.1.6, and a view of the fuel annulus
after the pump-scroll head was removed at the
end of the experiments is shown in Fig. 4.1.7.
The platinum-platinum rhodium thermocouples,
as well as the platinum electrodes, which are
visible in Fig. 4.1.7, were in good condition at
the end of the experimental study.
A two-dimensional plot of the electric po-
tential field for the 24-electrode power circuit is
presented in Fig. 4.1.8. Except for the very ends
of the system where some flux distortion exists,
the axial voltage gradient was within about 5.5%
of being uniform; Fonsequently, the power density
was within about 11% of being uniform. In the
actual ART system in which the heat sources will
be generated by fission, the volume heat sources
will not be uniform; in fact, near the wall‘they
will be from 2 to 3 times as great us they will be
near the center of the channel. The mean, un-
cooled wall and fluid temperature profiles obtained
in these experiments with a uniform volume heat
source are presented in Fig. 4.1.9 in normalized
form. The asymmetries in the outer core shell and
island hell wall temperatures can be ex-
plained basis of hydrodynamic flow asymme-
tries. For example, the high island core shell
wall temperature in the northern hemisphere exists
because a separation region completely encom-
passes the island shell in that regiqn. The
solution for an idealized ART (parallel-plates
system)’l is also plotted on Fig. 4.1.9; this
predicted uncooled wall temperature profile lies
PERIOD ENDING JUNE 10, 1956
Fig. 4.1.5. One-Half-Scale Model of ART Core
for Volume-Heat-Source Experiments.
between the island and outer care shell wall
temperature measurements.
7H, F. Poppendiek and L. 0. Palmer, Forced Con-
vection Heal Transfer Between Parallel Plates and in
Annuli with Volume Heat Sources Within the Fluids,
ORNL-1701 (May 11, 1954).
223