Design of the Down-scaled Test Vessel for a Hydrodynamic Simulation Reflecting Recent Specification of PGSFR

This is a pool type reactor in which the major components are installed inside the reactor vessel. Contained internals are four IHXs, four DHXs, and two PHTS pumps as principal components with others. Pressure drops along the flow paths are induced from the flow distribution determined by the arrangement of components in the reactor vessel. It is important to estimate these hydrodynamic characteristics, the flow distribution in a reactor vessel, and the pressure drops across the major components for the optimum thermo-hydraulic design of the reactor. For this concern, the experimental approach using a down-scaled model with water flow at room temperature was considered to predict the flow distribution in such a complex geometries of a newly designed reactor. The one-fifth down-scaled test vessel was designed reflecting the recent advances of the prototype to simulate the flow distribution of the PGSFR. The crucial changes were the size of the vessel diameter, IHX length, and addition of internal components such as IVTM, PSPS and FTP. Presented new design includes all changes for the fabrication of the test vessel. Extraction method for the complex pressure sensing lines from 112 FA simulators was devised using sensing line modules and CRDM tubes. The calibration of the principal components, FAs and IHX simulators were successfully completed.