Induction heating of a spherical aluminum moderator vessel for the Advanced Neutron Source (ANS)

This task was to identify and design a heating system to apply 15 kW of heat to a cold source vessel to simulate the Advanced Neutron Source reactor. This research project aims at the analysis of the induction heating of a spherical aluminum moderator vessel. Computer modeling is presented for the design and analysis of the induction heating system. The objective is to apply 15 kW of heat as uniformly as possible to the outer wall of a 410 mm diameter sphere of thickness 1.5 mm. The report also aims at the analysis of a system model which is simulated using the Eddycuff electromagnetic software. The computer model is built with the finite element analysis software Patran. The induction heating system analysis shows that the predicted performance is in close agreement with the computer simulated data. Hardware constraints such as power supplies and matching load are also analyzed in terms of performance and cost. Physical modeling is also suggested, in which the coil and the workpiece are scaled down