Course Details in

Module Title	LH Thermal Hydraulics and Reactor Engineering
School	Physics and Astronomy
Department	Physics & Astronomy
Module Code	03 25895
Module Lead	Dr Dave Forest
Level	Honours Level
Credits	10
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-24 hours Guided independent study-76 hours Total: 100 hours
Exclusions
Description	The module designed to equip students with a detailed understanding of thermal processes inside a nuclear reactor. The course covers the following aspects; Heat transfer by conduction, application to fuel elements. Heat transfer by forced convection, empirical correlations, dimensional analysis. Application to gas cooled reactors, maximum can temperature in channel, improvement by finning and by roughening can surface. Flow of compressible fluid with frictionlosses, pressure drop and pumping power. Thermohydraulic design of core, hotspot factors, gagging, significance of pumping power in gas cooled reactors, criteria for fuel element performance, choice of coolant. Boiling heat transfer, burnout, critical heat flux ratio. Two-phase flow, pressure drop correlations. Liquid metal heat transfer, application to sodium-cooled fast reactors. Pressure vessels, analysis of thick walled steel vessels, prestressed concrete vessels.Boilers, use of temperature-enthalpy diagram. Steam cycles, thermodynamic limitations on efficiency, Mollier diagram, wetness problems, superheat, reheat and feed heating. Safety studies by case history e.g. analysis of can temperature rise and duration of typical depressurisation accident.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module the student should be able to understand the detailed thermal processes including conduction, radiation and convection, which ocurr within nuclear reactors of a variety of current designs.
Assessment	25895-01 : Examination : Exam (Centrally Timetabled) - Written Unseen (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	2hr written examination
Other
Reading List