High temperature structural analysis of a medium scale process heat exchanger prototype

A process heat exchanger (PHE) in a nuclear hydrogen system is a key component for transferring the considerable heat generated in a very high temperature reactor (VHTR) to a chemical reaction that yields a large quantity of hydrogen. A performance test on a medium scale PHE prototype made of Hastelloy'R'-X is scheduled in a small scale gas loop at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. In this study, as a preliminary study before carrying out the performance test in the gas loop, high temperature structural analysis modeling and macroscopic thermal and structural analysis of the medium scale PHE prototype by imposing the established displacement boundary constraints were carried out under the gas loop test condition. The results obtained in this study will be compared with the performance test results of the medium scale PHE prototype in the gas loop