Research on Thermal Hydraulic Characteristics of Passive Containment Cooling System for Ship Nuclear Power Platform

Ship nuclear power platform is a small and movable power plant on the sea, aiming at generating electric energy and producing fresh water, it provides support for the national energy strategy. Subsequent to a loss of coolant accident (LOCA), steam is vented in the reactor containment following vaporization of liquid and/or steam expansion. The temperature as well as pressure in the condensation rises synchronously. For removing heat and reducing pressure inside containment subsequent to a LOCA, the Passive containment cooling system of Ship nuclear power platform is designed. In order to establish and maintain the passive heat removing channel, steam condenses on the containment condenser tube surface, coupling natural convection of the seawater inside the tubes. The heat transfer mechanism of Passive containment cooling system is very complex. To solve this problem, a three dimensional heat exchanging/one dimensional natural circulation coupling numerical computing method is proposed to obtained the safety performance of the reactor containment. Models of heat exchanging process between steam which contains non-condensable gas inside the reactor containment and sea water outside are firstly established. Then the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of the steam and sea water beside the heat transfer tubes are obtained by a simulation which is carried out in a LOCA.