Technical Papers and Presentations

Steam drum in a nuclear power plant is one of the important components of Primary Heat Transport (PHT) system where steam is separated from the steam water mixture. Steam water mixture emanating from the reactor core is separated in a steam drum. Separated steam goes to the turbine whereas separated water after mixing with incoming feed water returns to the reactor. The entire feed water flow is delivered through the feed sparger which is running along the length of the steam drum. The feed sparger is provided with no. of inverted “J” to distribute the feed water in the drum for proper mixing with the separated saturated water. Hot steam-water mixture in the steam drum directly flows on the feed sparger through which cold water is coming, thereby causing significant thermal stress to occur in the feed sparger. The present paper concentrates on the evaluation of stresses due to thermal shock on the feed sparger using the finite element modeling software COMSOL Multiphysics.