Publications

Design Construction and Operation of a Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (sCO₂) Loop for Investigation of Dry Cooling and Natural Circulation Potential for Use in Advanced Small Modular Reactors Utilizing sCO₂ Power Conversion Cycles

Middleton, Bobby M.; Rodriguez, Salvador B.; Carlson, Matthew D.

This report outlines the work completed for a Laboratory Directed Research and Development project at Sandia National Laboratories from October 2012 through September 2015. An experimental supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO ₂ ) loop was designed, built, and o perated. The experimental work demonstrated that sCO ₂ can be uti lized as the working fluid in an air - cooled, natural circulation configuration to transfer heat from a source to the ultimate heat sink, which is the surrounding ambient environment in most ca ses. The loop was also operated in an induction - heated, water - cooled configuration that allows for measurements of physical parameters that are difficult to isolate in the air - cooled configuration. Analysis included the development of two computational flu id dynamics models. Future work is anticipated to answer questions that were not covered in this project.