Printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) is one of the promising candidates to be employed in advanced nuclear reactors and next-generation concentrated solar power plants due to its compactness and capability for high-temperature, high-pressure applications with high effectiveness. Although the design methodology of PCHEs for non-nuclear services is well established in the ASME Code, code gaps for PCHE nuclear services need to be addressed and closed. In this study, thermal stress simulation incorporated with conjugate heat transfer is performed using one-way fluid-structure interaction models in ANSYS. The thermal stress and strain analyses are performed using a simplified three-dimensional model of a PCHE that is made of Alloy 800H for high-temperature molten salt-to-supercritical CO~2~ heat transfer applications. The heat transfer simulations will be validated using experimental data from nitrate salt-to-sCO~2~ PCHE testing.  In addition, post-test destructive inspection with a burst test of a second PCHE made of Inconel 617 is carried out in compliance with ASME standards. The results from the numerical simulations indicate that the highest stress occurs at the corners of the bounding interfaces and that this computed highest stress value is lower than the maximum allowable stress of the structural material at the corresponding temperature. The burst test results show that the maximum allowable working pressure for the PCHE is 4.5 MPa at 800 °C or 25.0 MPa at the room temperature. The welding region at the header to the heat exchanger block (core) interface could be the most vulnerable location because of the large pressure differentials of the PCHE fluids and the ambient as well as potential bonding strength degradation due to the welding.


Thermal-Mechanical Simulation and Burst Test Experiments of Printed Circuit Heat Exchangers for High-Temperature Applications

Division / Sponsors: 
Pressure Vessels & Piping (PVP)


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/PVP/PVP2020/volume/83815

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