Macroscopic Structural Analysis on a 10 kW Class Lab-Scale Process Heat Exchanger Prototype under a High-Temperature Gas Loop Condition

A PHE (Process Heat Exchanger) is a key component in transferring high-temperature heat generated from a VHTR (Very High Temperature Reactor) to a chemical reaction for the massive production of hydrogen. Last year, a 10 kW class lab-scale PHE prototype made of Hastelloy-X was manufactured at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), and a performance test of the PHE prototype is currently underway in a small-scale nitrogen gas loop at KAERI. The PHE prototype is composed of two kinds of flow plates: grooves 1.0 mm in diameter machined into the flow plate for the primary coolant, and waved channels bent into the flow plate for the secondary coolant. Inside the 10 kW class lab-scale PHE prototype, twenty flow plates for the primary and secondary coolants are stacked in turn. In this study, to understand the macroscopic structural behavior of the PHE prototype under the steady-state operating condition of the gas loop, high-temperature structural analyses on the 10 kW class lab-scale PHE prototype were performed for two extreme cases: in the event of contacting the flow plates together, and when not contacting them. The analysis results for the extreme cases were also compared.