An experimental study on the heat losses of the SMART-ITL facility for the SMART design by three methods

This paper presents the experimental results of the heat loss rate for the primary system of a SMART-ITL (System-Integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor-Integral Test Loop) facility including the pressurizer (PZR). To evaluate the heat loss rate of the primary system, three different approaches were pursued, i.e., a heat balance method, and integral and differential approaches. First, the heat balance method is used to estimate the heat loss rate from the energy balance between given core power and heat transfer rate through steam generator. The integral approach is a constant temperature method that controls the core and PZR powers at a desired temperature condition, and the differential approach is a natural cooling-down measurement method that lasts for a long period of time. The results obtained by the three approaches showed reasonably similar results. In addition, an empirical correlation with respect to the difference between the wall temperature and the ambient temperature was proposed to represent the heat loss characteristics of the SMART-ITL facility. (author)