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Development and Application of an Engineering Simulator for HTR-PM Using THERMIX/BLAST and vPower

Yang Tang, Yangping Zhou, Zhiwei Zhou, Lei Shi

Nuclear Technology / Volume 200 / Number 1 / October 2017 / Pages 27-44

Technical Paper / dx.doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1352329

Received:November 8, 2016
Accepted:July 2, 2017
Published:September 19, 2017

Different from most current commercial nuclear power plants, the High-Temperature gas-cooled Reactor Pebble-bed Module (HTR-PM) power plant consists of two reactor modules connected to a common steam turbine system that will bring a special coupling effect between the two reactor modules. An engineering simulator of the HTR-PM plant was developed by embedding the THERMIX/BLAST code into the vPower simulation platform. Two sets of nuclear steam supply systems of HTR-PM, including two reactors, two steam generators, two helium blowers, and the helium flow ducts, were simulated by two THERMIX/BLAST code modules, respectively. The entire secondary loop system was simulated using intrinsic models of the vPower simulation platform. The vPower platform connects and synchronizes the two THERMIX/BLAST modules, as well as the simulation module for the secondary loop system. The engineering simulator was applied to simulate the behavior of HTR-PM under steady-state operation, startup and shutdown processes, and accident conditions. The coupling effect during the condition conversion process and the thermal characteristics under accident conditions of HTR-PM were analyzed by the engineering simulator.