COMSOL Simulation for Design of Induction Heating System in VULCAN Facility. (20th August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Min, Jinkun; Zhu, Guangyu; Yuan, Yidan; Liu, Jingquan
• Other Names: Cizelj Leon Academic Editor.
• Is Part Of: Science and technology of nuclear installations. Volume 2021(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-08-20
• Subjects: Nuclear engineering -- Periodicals; Nuclear facilities -- Periodicals; Nuclear engineering; Nuclear facilities; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 621.48
• DOI: 10.1155/2021/9922503
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1687-6075

Abstract

Abstract : The experimental facility VULCAN was setup to study the fuel-coolant interaction (FCI) phenomena in a postulated severe accident of light water reactors. The heating system is important for the facility to prepare molten material in a crucible. This article is concerned with the design of the heating system, which applies electromagnetic induction heating method. The COMSOL code was employed to simulate the induction heating characteristics of a graphite crucible under different current and frequency of the work coil (inductor). Given a frequency, the relationship between the crucible's average temperature and the inductor's current is obtained, which is instrumental to select the power supply of the induction heating system. Meanwhile, the skin effect of induction heating is analyzed to guide the choice of frequency and inductor of the heating system. According to the simulation results, the induction heating system of frequency 47 kHz is suitable for the experiment, with a good agreement in temperature between the measured and the predicted.