The Gasification of Graphite Matrix in Pebble Bed Reactors

Abstract

This paper mainly deals with the simulations of graphite matrix of the spherical fuel elements by steam in normal operating conditions. The fuel element matrix graphite was firstly simplified to an annular part in the simulations. Then the corrosions to the matrix graphite in 10 MW High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTR-10) and the High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor—–Pebble-bed Module (HTR-PM) were investigated respectively. The results showed that the gasification of fuel element matrix graphite was uniform and mainly occurred at the bottom of the core in both of the reactors in the mean residence time of the spherical fuel elements. This was mainly caused by the designed high temperature at the bottom. The total mass gasified in HTR-PM was much greater than the HTR-10, while it did not mean much severer corrosion occurred there. As it is known the core volume of HTR-PM is much larger than the HTR-10, which will result in much greater consumed graphite even for the same corrosion rate. The steam only lost about 1 to 3 percent after flowing through the cores in both reactors for different steam conditions. The corrosion of graphite became worse when the steam concentrations increased in helium coolant. The results also indicated that the corrosion rate of fuel element matrix graphite tended to increase slightly with the prolonging of the service time.