Design, optimization and thermodynamic analysis of SCO2 Brayton cycle system for FHR

The small modular fluorid-salt-cooled high temperature reactor has a higher core outlet temperature, and the Rankine cycle cannot meet the design requirements of this type reactor. The SCO2 Brayton cycle is one of the most promising energy conversion system options for this type reactor. In this paper, the design and optimization of the configuration, temperature, pressure and other parameters for the thermal efficiency of SCO2 Brayton cycle are performed, which is applied for the Fluoride-Salt-cooled high-Temperature Advanced Reactor (FuSTAR). In order to ensure the process of heat transfer, a conservative method to detect and locate the pinch point is proposed. At first, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to find the optimize thermal efficiency of simple regenerated cycle. Then, by analyzing the entropy and differential temperature of cold and heat sources, four improved configurations is promoted. The results show that under the thermodynamic boundary of FuSTAR, the thermal efficiency of reheating and intercooling cycle is the highest, reaching 51.64%. In addition, the sensitivity analysis of key parameters is carried out under the optimal thermal efficiency of five configurations. In addition, the primary reheat and intercooling cycle is most suitable for the energy conversion system of FuSTAR.