Development of Device for Measuring the Heat Generation Rate of Materials in Research Reactor

To explore the axial distribution of the heat generation rate of the materials in the channels of the test reactor, a heat generation rate measuring device was designed, by taking the G7 channel of the high flux engineering test reactor (HFETR) as an example. The strain distribution contours of the device and test section under load are obtained by numerical simulation method, and the temperatures of the calorimeter to calibrate the bridge and the measurement bridge are obtained by physical calculation. The heat generation rate measurement is carried out in the G7 channel using this test device. The results show that the overall structure of the device meets the strength requirements, and a protective tube needs to be installed between the calorimeters in the test section. The calculated temperature of the sample and the bridge is lower than the melting point of the material, and the device meets the thermal requirements. The heat generation rate measured by the test varies with the reactor power changes regularly. Different materials have different γ absorption properties under different energy levels of γ-ray environment. The device can be used as a heat generation rate measurement tool to provide a guarantee for determining the heat generation rate distribution of different materials in the nuclear reactor.