Effect of wall structure on pebble stagnation behavior in pebble bed reactor

Crystallization of pebbles in pebble bed is a crucial problem in high temperature gas-cooled pebble-bed reactors. This phenomenon usually happens along the internal surface and leads to a large number of stagnated pebbles, which poses a threat to reactor safety. In real reactor engineering, wall structures have been utilized to avoid this problem. This article verifies the crystallization phenomenon through DEM (discrete element method) simulation, and explains how wall structures work in preventing crystallization. Moreover, several kinematic parameters have been adopted to evaluate wall structures with different shapes, sizes and intervals. Detailed information shows the impact of wall structure on flow field in pebble bed. Lastly, the preferred characteristics of an effective wall structure are suggested for reactor engineering. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.