Abstract
A small forced-convection molten-fluoride-salt loop is being constructed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to examine the heat transfer behavior of FLiNaK salt in a heated pebble bed. Objectives of the experiment include reestablishing infrastructure needed for fluoride-salt loop testing, developing a unique inductive heating technique for performing heat transfer (or other) experiments, measuring heat transfer characteristics in a liquid-fluoride-salt-cooled pebble bed, and demonstrating the use of silicon carbide (SiC) as a structural component for salt systems. The salt loop will consist of an Inconel 600 piping system, a sump-type pump, a SiC test section, and an air-cooled heat exchanger, as well as auxiliary systems needed to pre-heat the loop, transport salt into and out of the loop, and maintain an inert cover gas over the salt. A 30,000 Hz inductive heating system will be used to provide up to 250 kW of power to a 15 cm diameter SiC test section containing a packed bed of 3 cm graphite spheres. A SiC-to-Inconel 600 joint will use a conventional nickel/grafoil spiral wound gasket sandwiched between SiC and Inconel flanges. The loop system can provide up to 4.5 kg/s of salt flow at a head of 0.125 MPa and operate at a pressure just above atmospheric. Pebble Reynolds numbers of up to 2600 are possible with this configuration. A sump system is provided to drain and store the salt when not in use. Instrumentation on the loop will include pressure, temperature, and flow measurements, while the test section will be instrumented to provide pebble and FLiNaK temperatures.
