Core and blanket thermal-hydraulic analysis of a molten salt fast reactor based on coupling of OpenMC and OpenFOAM

In the core of a molten salt fast reactor(MSFR),heavy metal fuel and fission products can be dissolved in a molten fluoride salt to form a eutectic mixture that acts as both fuel and coolant.Fission energy is released from the fuel salt and transferred to the second loop by fuel salt circulation.Therefore,the MSFR is characterized by strong interaction between the neutronics and the thermal hydraulics.Moreover,recirculation flow occurs,and nuclear heat is accumulated near the fertile blanket,which significantly affects both the flow and the temperature fields in the core.In this work,to further optimize the conceptual geometric design of the MSFR,three geometries of the core and fertile blanket are proposed,and the thermal-hydraulic characteristics,including the three-dimensional flow and temperature fields of the fuel and fertile salts,are simulated and analyzed using a coupling scheme between the open source codes OpenMC and OpenFOAM.The numerical results indicate that a flatter core temperature distribution can be obtained and the hot spot and flow stagnation zones that appear in the upper and lower parts of the core center near the reflector can be eliminated by curving both the top and bottom walls of the core.Moreover,eight cooling loops with a total flow rate of0.0555 m3 s-1 ensur an acceptable temperature distribusure an acceptable temperature distribution in the fertile blanket.

New development of sets equipment technologies for coal mine longwall face in China

Background of the development and achievement on sets equipment technologies for coal mine longwall face in China was reviewed initially. On the theoretical side, a coupling model of hydraulic support and surrounding rock, support pa- rameters optimization and threedimensional （3D） dynamic design method were presented. On the practical side, this paper out lined some of practical issues and discussed some relative methods and technologies. In thin seam coal longwall mining, how to lower equipment height is the first problem that should be solved. Roof pressure regularity, control of rooffall and collapse, and hydraulic support stability were investigated preferentially in 5-7 m coal seam longwall mining. The application of equip- ment for longwall mining with 5-7 m cutting height in China was concluded. The characteristics of full-mechanized top coal caving for extra thick seam coal were presented. The automation of top-caving hydraulic support and relevant equipment have achieved important breakthrough. At the end of this paper, further development of China＇s coal industry and longwall mining technologies and equipment were prospected in brief. This paper gives readers a comprehensive understanding of China＇s coal mine longwall face equipment technologies. It will give help to other countries on its coal mining development.

Energy modeling and optimization of building condenser water systems with all-variable speed pumps and tower fans:A case study

The emergence of building condenser water systems with all-variable speed pumps and tower fans allows for increased efficiency and flexibility of chiller plants in partial load operation but also increases the control complexity of condenser water systems.This study aims to develop an integrated modeling technique for evaluating and optimizing the energy performance of such a condenser water system.The proposed system model is based on the semi-physical semi-empirical chiller,pump,and cooling tower models,with capabilities of fully considering the hydraulic and thermal interactions in the condenser water loop,being solved analytically and much faster than iterative solvers and supporting the explicit optimization of the pump and tower fan frequency.A mathematical approach,based on the system model and constrained optimization technique,is subsequently established to evaluate the energy performance of a typical dual setpoint-based variable speed strategy and find its energy-saving potential and most efficient operation by jointly optimizing pumps and tower fans.An all-variable speed chiller plant from Wuhan,China,is used for a case study to validate the system model’s accuracy and explore its applicability.The results showed that the system model can accurately simulate the condenser water system’s performance under various operating conditions.By optimizing the frequencies of pumps and tower fans,the total system energy consumption can be reduced by 12%–13%compared to the fixed dual setpoint-based strategy with range and approach setpoints of 4℃and 2℃.In contrast,the energy-saving potential of optimizing the cooling tower sequencing is insignificant.A simple joint speed control method for optimizing the pumps and tower fans emerged,i.e.,the optimal pump and fan frequency are linearly correlated(if both are non-extremes)and depend on the chiller part load ratio only,irrespective of the ambient wet-bulb temperature and chilled water supply temperature.It was also found that the oversizing issue has further limited the energy-saving space of the studied system and results in the range and approach setpoints being inaccessible.The study’s findings can serve as references to the operation optimization of all-variable speed condenser water systems in the future.