Lead Pressure Loss in the Heat Exchanger of the Elsy Fast Lead- Cooled Reactor by Cfd Approach

The present paper discusses the pressure loss through the spiral heat exchanger (HX) proposed in the ELSY (European-Lead cooled SYstem) project. An approach based on CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) using the commercial code ANSYS CFX has been used for exploring the flow through the HX. The HX consists of perforated double inner and double outer walls, as well as an innovative spiral design of the pipe bundle. Two investigation ways are considered, namely a detailed local approach by employing unit slice models and a simplified global approach. The unit slice models discretize accurately small parts of the HX, while the global models consider geometrical simplifications of the main HX components. ANSYS CFX was qualified for pressure loss simulations through perforated plates. At nominal conditions, the pressure loss estimated meets the requirements issued in the reactor design.