Three-dimensional Studies of the 700 MWE Steam Generator Design

Abstract

The next stage in the Indian nuclear power programme envisions building 700 MWe Indian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (IPHWR) units. This involves up-rating of all the plant equipment including the reactor, steam generators (SGs), turbo-generator, major pumps, etc. The SG used in the current generation of 540 MWe IPHWRs, is a mushroom type, inverted U-tube, natural-circulation SG. The 700 MWe SG is of the same type and has the same tube bundle design and the same heat transfer area. The tube diameter, tube pitch, and outer diameter of the SG sections are the same as for the 540 MWe SG. The geometry of the feedwater header, the flow restrictor in the downcomer and the flow distribution plate are different in the two designs. The changes were required due to a 26% increase in steam flow rate while maintaining the same circulation ratio. This paper describes the design of the 700 MWe SG and a thermalhydraulic analysis using a one-dimensional, in-house code and a three-dimensional code called THIRST developed by AECL. The codes were validated against the 540 MWe SG data. The analysis was made for the 700 MWe SG for two versions: with and without integral preheater. The results of the THIRST runs were used for a flow- induced vibration analysis. The results of the flow-induced vibration analysis show that the vibrations are not excessive.