International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol.141, 204-216, 2019
Repeatable experimental measurements of effective thermal diffusivity and conductivity of pebble bed under vacuum and helium conditions
Effective thermal diffusivity and conductivity are two crucial parameters to determine inherent safety in porous pebble bed of High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor. A full-radius-scale heat test facility has been developed to measure these thermal properties at high temperature. Two vacuum tests and two atmospheric-pressure helium tests up to 1200 degrees C have been conducted to determine the temperature-dependent parameters by the inverse method. Repeatable results are validated by both tests with different heating processes. Furthermore, the primary experimental errors from installation positions of thermocouples as well as random packing effect are reduced by retrieving positions in the inverse method. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses are carried out in respective tests to give the reasonable descriptions of the results of effective thermal diffusivity and conductivity in these tests. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Effective thermal diffusivity and conductivity;High-temperature test facility;Inverse method;Pebble bed;High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor