Analysis of the flow inside a calandria based reactor and the proposed geometric modification for better efficiency

Continuous heat removal from the fuel channels in the calandria based reactor is important to avoid any hazardous aftermath. In the present paper, we have discussed (a) the thermal and flow characteristics of the fluid inside the calandria based reactor and, (b) effect of the introduction of a splitter near the inlet on the flow behavior. The combination of mass flow rate and the inlet angle leading to lowest maximum temperatures inside the calandria was found to cause the under utilization of the calandria. Hence the latter part of the analysis has been carried out in the direction of improving the efficiency of the calandria by splitting the mass of flow near the inlet. The comparative analysis has shown that this simple geometric modification (introduction of airfoil shaped body near inlet) can bring down the calandria temperature to the safe limits for the same mass flow rate. (author)