Thermal–hydraulic design and analysis code development for steam generator of CFR600

• A thermal–hydraulic design and analysis code is developed for CFR600 steam generator.
• The thermal–hydraulic model is verified with SG-33 and CEFR steam generator.
• Sensitivity analysis is performed to study influence of key parameters on heat transfer.
• Steam generator of CFR600 is preliminarily designed using the developed design code.

China Fast Reactor (CFR) with 600 MW electric power is under development in China. Lots of efforts are being made to its Research and Development (R&D). The CFR600 steam generator with straight tubes consists of the evaporator and the superheater. Phase change exists in the water/steam side and the thermal–hydraulic behavior is difficult to predict. It is challenging to design such a steam generator. Therefore, a suitable thermal–hydraulic code is necessary to assist its design and analysis. A steady-state thermal–hydraulic model is derived based on the mass, energy and momentum equations. The characteristic tube is divided into four regions: subcooled region, nucleate boiling region, film boiling region and superheated region. Equal node enthalpy increment in a region is applied to enhance the numerical accuracy. The model is verified with the design results of design code SG-33 and CEFR. It is proven that the code developed can be used to design and analyze the thermal–hydraulic behavior. Sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the influence on the heat transfer from key parameters. A preliminary design of CFR600 steam generator is presented using the developed code and reasonable results are obtained.