CX-270270: Experimental and Modeling Investigation of Overcooling Transients that Include Freezing, in Fluoride-Salt Cooled High-Temperature Reactors (FHRs) – University of Wisconsin

The University of Wisconsin proposes to recommendations for design features of FHR reactor components that would take advantage of the phenomena characteristic to fluoride salts in order to be resilient to overcooling, and to recover gracefully from over-cooling transients. In support of this task a MOOSEbased computational tool will be developed, backed by experimental studies with the prototypical (flibe) coolant, and with simulant fluids. Experimental work will be done with flibe, the prototypical coolant for FHR, as well as surrogate non-beryllium fluoride salt coolants such as flinak, and simulant fluids such as oils and non-fluoride liquid salts. The purpose of this task is to understand the freezing phenomenology, and to inform the development of constitutive models.