Experimental determination of the emissivity of nuclear graphite at high temperature conditions

In a High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR), radiation is the dominant form of heat transfer due to the high temperature environment. Therefore, the emissivity of the core materials (mainly nuclear grade graphite) is important for reactor safety assessment. In this paper, the emissivity of nuclear grade graphite IG-110 was measured in the temperature range from 500 ℃ to 1000 ℃ by using an infrared thermometer. Besides, the impact of the graphite oxidation, which may take place in a postulated air ingress accident, was also evaluated. As a result, it was found that the emissivity of IG-110 grade graphite decreases slightly as the temperature increase. Moreover, a relatively high emissivity was detected in the pre-oxidized specimen. Based on the measurement data, two experimental correlations were suggested for the engineering applications. It could also be concluded that the commonly used value of the graphite emissivity (0.8), is conservative for engineering judgment. (author)