Simulation Research on Thermal-Hydraulic Performance of a Natural Circulation Integrated Pressurized Water Reactor

As an effective measure to improve the reactor’s inherent safety feature, natural circulation is widely used in current integrated reactor design. The thermal-hydraulic performance of a flashing-driven nature circulation integrated pressurized water reactor (NC-IPWR) is studied, by taking IP100 reactor as reference. The simulation model of the reactor is established by RELAP5 code. A control system is designed based on the operation characteristics of the reactor. Both steady-state and dynamic performance of the reactor are analyzed and the rationality of the control strategy is verified in this work. The results demonstrate the operation characteristics of the IP100 reactor, and the dynamic performance of the reactor during power variation is discussed in detail. The control strategy that keeps the steam pressure and the core outlet temperature constant shows good performance under normal operation conditions. The obtained analysis results are significant for deeper understanding and improving the operation characteristics of the IP100 reactor.