Nuclear reactor pump/heat exchanger assembly
AssigneeHydromine Nuclear Energy S.A.R.L.
InventorLuciano Cinotti
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Abstract
One or more embodiments of the present invention relate to a pump/heat exchanger assembly of a nuclear reactor, in particular a liquid metal cooled nuclear reactor, the pump being characterized in that the shaft for driving the impeller is inserted in an shell inside the heat exchanger and has a smaller cross section at the bottom part of the tube bundle of the heat exchanger and a cross section that gradually increases up to a widest cross section at the top part of the tube bundle of the heat exchanger. The resulting axial profile of the impeller's shaft is, at the same time, designed to uniformly distribute the flow of the primary fluid inside the tube bundle of the heat exchanger and to provide high mechanical inertia to the pump.
Claims8
A pump/heat exchanger assembly for a nuclear reactor, the pump/heat exchanger assembly comprising:
- a heat exchanger including an internal shell and a tube bundle having a bottom part and a top part;
- and
- a pump including an impeller and a shaft configured for driving the impeller;
- wherein the shaft is inserted in the internal shell inside the heat exchanger;
- wherein the shaft has a smaller cross section at the bottom part of the tube bundle of the heat exchanger and a cross-section that gradually increases up to a widest cross-section at the top part of the tube bundle of the heat exchanger;
- wherein the shaft has a profile that is cylindrical below the bottom part of the tube bundle and cylindrical above the top part of the tube bundle, and a paraboloid of rotation between the top part and bottom part of the tube bundle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.