Cooling and insulating problems in a high temperature helium test facility

For non-nuclear testing of circuit components of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors with large helium turbines, two basic types of test facilities can be employed: (a) a classical closed-cycle gas turbine plant with fossil-fired or electric heater or (b) a test circuit that requires no separate heater but whose energy comes from the motor-driven compressor of the turbomachine. The second type is the subject of this paper, which begins with the general considerations and a description of such a plant. The main part, which includes experimental results, reports on the thermal performance of two main components of the test facility, namely the turbomachine and the hot gas duct.Copyright © 1984 by ASME