Thermal hydraulic analysis of Alfred bayonet tube steam generator

The paper analyzes the performance of ALFRED steam generator from the thermal-hydraulic point of view highlighting the effect of some design features. The parameters object of the study are the regenerative heat transfer, the dimension of the inner tube and the length of the bayonet. The system code RELAP5-3D/2.4.2 has been chosen for the analysis. Sensitivities analysis allowed the determination of the different design parameters influence, here briefly summarized. The increase of regenerative heat transfer affects the efficiency of the steam generator through a degradation of the outlet steam quality: the number of bayonet tubes required to remove the nominal power increases with the increase of the global heat transfer coefficient of the inner tube. A higher inner diameter results in a larger surface area for the regenerative heat transfer and in a higher heat transfer coefficient in the annular region because of the reduction of the cross section. The result is an improvement of the performances of the steam generator thanks to the dimension reduction of the annular gap. Finally, if the height of the bayonet tube is reduced by 1 meter, the number of bayonet tubes required to remove the nominal power increases up to 20%.