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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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75 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2002

Direct-Drive Gas-Cooled Reactor Power System: Concept and Preliminary Testing

This paper describes the concept and preliminary component testing of a gas-cooled, UN-fueled, pin-type reactor which uses He/Xe gas that goes directly into a recuperated Brayton system to produce electricity for nuclear electric propulsion. This Direct-Drive Gas-Cooled Reactor (DDG) is designed to be subcritical under water or wet- sand immersion in case of a launch accident. Because the gas-cooled reactor can directly drive the Brayton turbomachinery, it is possible to configure the system such that there are no external surfaces or pressure boundaries that are refractory metal, even though the gas delivered to the turbine is 1144 K. The He/Xe gas mixture is a good heat transport medium when flowing, and a good insulator when stagnant. Judicious use of stagnant cavities as insulating regions allows transport of the 1144-K gas while keeping all external surfaces below 900 K. At this temperature super-alloys (Hastelloy or Inconel) can be used instead of refractory metals. Super-alloys reduce the technology risk because they are easier to fabricate than refractory metals, we have a much more extensive knowledge base on their characteristics, and, because they have a greater resistance to oxidation, system testing is eased. The system is also relatively simple in its design: no additional coolant pumps, heat exchanger, or freeze-thaw systems are required. Key to success of this concept is a good knowledge of the heat transfer between the fuel pins and the gas, as well as the pressure drop through the system. This paper describes preliminary testing to obtain this key information, as well as experience in demonstrating electrically heated testing of simulated reactor components.

Wright, S. A.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Thermally Simulated Testing of a Direct-Drive Gas-Cooled Nuclear Reactor

This paper describes the concept and preliminary component testing of a gas-cooled, UN-fueled, pin-type reactor which uses He/Xe gas that goes directly into a recuperated Brayton system to produce electricity for nuclear electric propulsion. This Direct-Drive Gas-Cooled Reactor (DDG) is designed to be subcritical under water or wet-sand immersion in case of a launch accident. Because the gas-cooled reactor can directly drive the Brayton turbomachinery, it is possible to configure the system such that there are no external surfaces or pressure boundaries that are refractory metal, even though the gas delivered to the turbine is 1144 K. The He/Xe gas mixture is a good heat transport medium when flowing, and a good insulator when stagnant. Judicious use of stagnant cavities as insulating regions allows transport of the 1144-K gas while keeping all external surfaces below 900 K. At this temperature super-alloys (Hastelloy or Inconel) can be used instead of refractory metals. Super-alloys reduce the technology risk because they are easier to fabricate than refractory metals, we have a much more extensive knowledge base on their characteristics, and, because they have a greater resistance to oxidation, system testing is eased. The system is also relatively simple in its design: no additional coolant pumps, heat exchanger, or freeze-thaw systems are required. Key to success of this concept is a good knowledge of the heat transfer between the fuel pins and the gas, as well as the pressure drop through the system. This paper describes preliminary testing to obtain this key information, as well as experience in demonstrating electrical thermal simulation of reactor components and concepts.

Godfroy, Thomas↗
NASA NTRS2002

Phase Transition in Dusty Plasmas: A Microphysical Description

Dust grains immersed in plasma discharges acquire a large negative charge and settle into a dust cloud at the edge of the sheath. In this region, the plasma ions stream toward the electrode at a velocity u approx. cs=(T(sub e)/m(sub i))(exp 1/2). Experimentally at sufficiently high gas pressure P, the random kinetic energy of the grains is damped by gas friction, and the grains are strongly coupled and self-organize into a crystalline configuration. For lower pressures despite the dissipation of grain kinetic energy to gas friction, the dust grains reach a steady-state kinetic temperature T(sub d) which is much larger than the temperature of any other component in the plasma. T(sub d) is so large that the dust acts like a fluid. We have used the dynamically shielded dust (DSD) model to simulate these physical processes. We find that the known experimental features are nicely reproduced in the simulations, and that additional features are revealed. In the figure we plot the variation of T(sub d) as P is continuously varied in a DSD code run. A marked difference is evident between the critical pressure P(sub m) for the melting transition as P is decreased, and the critical pressure P(sub c) for the condensation transition as P is increased. For P(sub m) is less than P is less than P(sub c), mixed phase states are seen. This hysteresis occurs because the instability which triggers melting is different from the instability that heats the dust in the fluid phase and inhibits freezing. At low pressure, the dust is subject to a two-stream instability with the ions. This instability is responsible for the high temperature of the dust at low pressure. The basic physics underlying the melting transition has been elucidated in a series of papers. We are developing a first-principles analytic approach to the melting transition, which embodies the same physics that is present in the DSD code.

Joyce, Glenn↗