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US 11,270,802 B1Granted
Creep and cascade failure mitigation in heat pipe reactors
AssigneeTriad National Security, LLC
InventorRobert Stowers Reid
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Technique(s) to mitigate creep and/or cascade failure in high temperature heat pipe reactor cores may include gas loading each heat pipe such that when one or more heat pipes in the heat pipe array fail, the adjacent heat pipes can accommodate added heat load with little change in temperature.
Claims17
An apparatus, comprising:
- an array of gas loaded heat pipes that surround one or more fuel pins;
- and
- a heat pipe reactor core comprising one or more monolithic blocks,
- wherein each of the one or more monolithic blocks comprises the array of gas loaded heat pipes, the one or more fuel pins, or both,
- wherein, in response to a reduction in heat transfer capacity of one or more failed gas loaded heat pipes in the array of gas loaded heat pipes, one or more operational gas loaded heat pipes in the array of gas loaded heat pipes are configured to mitigate creep or a cascade failure
- wherein the one or more operational gas loaded heat pipes adjacent to the one or more failed gas loaded heat pipes are configured to absorb additional heat from the one or more fuel pins located next to or between the one or more failed gas loaded heat pipes and the one or more operational gas loaded heat pipes,
- wherein each operational gas loaded heat pipe in the array of gas loaded heat pipes comprises a gas vapor interface, and
- wherein, in response to the reduction in heat transfer capacity of the one or more failed gas loaded heat pipes in the array of gas loaded heat pipes, the apparatus is configured to control a location of the gas vapor interface by controlling an amount of non-condensable gas in a gas region of the one or more operational gas loaded heat pipes adjacent to the one or more failed gas loaded heat pipes.
5 more elements
An apparatus configured to mitigate creep or cascade failure in a high temperature heat pipe reactor core (reactor core) under a failed condition, the apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of fuel pins within the reactor core;
- and
- a plurality of variable conductance gas loaded heat pipes within the reactor core,
- wherein each of the plurality of fuel pins is surrounded by a predefined number of variable conductance gas loaded heat pipes,
- wherein a portion of the variable conductance gas loaded heat pipes is enclosed within a heat exchanger,
- wherein one or more of the plurality of variable conductance gas loaded heat pipes are configured to increase heat absorption in response to one or more adjacent failed variable conductance gas loaded heat pipes of the plurality of variable conductance gas loaded heat pipes,
- wherein the variable conductance gas loaded heat pipes non-adjacent to the one or more failed variable conductance gas loaded heat pipes are configured to remain at or near a stable temperature while absorbing additional heat,
- wherein each of the variable conductance gas loaded heat pipes adjacent to the one or more failed variable conductance gas loaded heat pipes comprises a gas vapor interface, and
- wherein the apparatus is configured to control a location of the gas vapor interface by controlling an amount of non-condensable gas in a gas region of the one or more variable conductance gas loaded heat pipes to absorb the additional heat from the failure of the one or more failed variable conductance gas loaded heat pipes.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.