CX-270393: Radiative Heat Transport and Optical Characterization of High Temperature Molten Salts – University of Wisconsin

The University of Wisconsin proposes to experimentally investigate radiative heat transport in molten salts, and to add functionality to a thermal-hydraulics system code for radiative heat transport in participating media. In Task 1, highly resolved measurements of the optical absorption and emissivity of liquid salts will be obtained, as a function of temperature and impurity concentrations, as well as the emissivity of solid materials immersed in the salts. Measurements will be made on a range of non-fuel-bearing salt mixtures, including flibe, flinak, KF-ZrF4, LiF-ZrF4, and others, including fission-product-bearing salts. Task 2 includes experimental measurements of heat transfer coefficients at temperatures at which radiation contributes significantly to heat transfer; measurements will be made with flibe molten salt, taking advantage of existing flibe loop infrastructure. In Task 3, a CFD code-to-code comparison exercise will be performed.