Heat Transfer in Nuclear Power Plants

Course guarantor:

Martin Ševeček

Lecturer:

Dušan Kobylka, Sebastian Nývlt, Martin Ševeček

Tutor:

Dušan Kobylka, Sebastian Nývlt, Martin Ševeček

Supervisor:

Department of Nuclear Reactors

Synopsis:

The course titled Heat Transfer in Nuclear Power Plants presents to the students the fundamental principles of heat transfer with a focus on nuclear power-related applications. Most of the terms and laws were introduced in the course 02TER which is a predecessor of this course. The course 17STJE elaborates the principles in details and extends the knowledge of students mainly in the areas related to the heat transfer in nuclear cores.

An overview lecture of the basic principles will be given at the beginning of the course and all of the fundamental heat transfer mechanism will be discussed during the next weeks. It will start with conduction followed by convection and radiation at the end. The course focuses on the applications of thermokinetics related to nuclear reactors and equipment related to nuclear power plants and spent nuclear fuel. For that reason, conduction and convection are to be discussed into details. Convection is divided according the nature of the flow into laminar and turbulent. The concept of radiative heat transfer was theoretically introduced in previous courses and the applications and models used by industry will be presented here. The course includes also fundamentals of heat transfer with phase changes main emphasis is given to boiling.

Requirements:

To receive zápočet, you must earn a minimum of 15 points in the semester from a total of 2 written exams at the midpoint and end of the semester (each worth 15 points), with the possibility of earning extra points for activity in class or by solving bonus examples at home. Conversely, 3 points are deducted for each adequately excused absence beyond 2 absences. If a student receives 10-14 points at the end of the semester, he/she is eligible for remedial credit, where credit is given if he/she achieve at least 50% success on the test.

The examination consists of a written and an oral part. The written examination paper is worth 70 points, and after adding all the points from the semester, the standard CTU grading scale is applied to determine the grade for the written part of the examination. In the case of grades A-E, the oral part of the exam follows, where the student is asked several questions covering the subject matter. The oral part of the exam results in a mark which is averaged with the mark from the written part (rounded up), and this mark is entered as the final mark in the KOS.

Syllabus of lectures:

1.Introduction to the heat transfer

2.Conduction

3.Convection applications in nuclear power

4.Convection laminar flow

5.Convection turbulent flow

6.Heat radiation special cases in nuclear power applications

7.Heat transfer with a phase change

Syllabus of tutorials:

Exercises comprise 50% of the course. First, special cases of Fourier differential equation (heat conduction) are presented and solved. Following cases and geometries are to be solved: stationary heat transfer through a wall and cylindrical wall without internal heat sources. Next, the chapters that are going to be presented during lectures are demonstrated on real cases. The tasks include: energy conservation, conductive heat transfer, thermal fields in special geometries with and without heat sources, non-symmetric boundary conditions, outer convection (forced and natural), inner convection, boiling and heat radiation.

Study Objective:

Study materials:

Povinná literatura:

1.Dhar P.L.: Thermal System Design and Simulation, Academic Press, 2017, ISBN 978-0-1280-9449-5

2.Todreas N.E., Kazimi M.S.: Nuclear systems, volume I, CRC Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4398-0887-0

3.Howell J.-R., Menguc M.-P., Siegel R.: Thermal Radiation Heat Transfer, CRC press, 2015

Doporučená literatura:

4.Anderson D.: Computational Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer, third edition, CRC press, 2016

5.Incropera F. P., DeWitt D. P.: Introduction to Heat Transfer, John Willey & Sons, New York, 1996, ISBN 0-471-304581

Note:

Time-table for winter semester 2025/2026:

Time-table is not available yet

Time-table for summer semester 2025/2026:

Time-table is not available yet

The course is a part of the following study plans:

• Jaderné inženýrství - Jaderné reaktory (PS)