A HIGH POWER AND HIGH EFFICIENCY, SPACE BASED, NUCLEAR MDH CYCLE, AND ITS TERRESTRIAL SIMULATION USING A CHEMICAL HEAT SOURCE

A NOVEL CHEMICAL FUEL, FIRED COMBUSTOR IS PROPOSED FOR USE AS A LOW COST HEAT SOURCE TO SIMULATE A CLASS OF NUCLEAR REACTORS, INCLUDING THE SOLID CORE, COLLOID CORE, AND GAS CORE NUCLEAR REACTORS, WHICH OPERATE AT PEAK STAGNATION TEMPERATURES BETWEEN 2000-5000OK. SINCE THIS TEMPERATURE RANGE IS COMPATIBLE WITH NON-EQULIBRIUM, MHD GENERATORS, WE ALSO PROPOSE TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF USING A HIGH EFFICIENCY, HYBRID BRAYTON-RANKINE CYCLE AS A SPACE BASED NUCLEAR-MHD POWER SYSTEM. THE COMBUSTOR ALLOWS THE HEATING OF THE MHD GENERATOR WORKING FLUID TO CONDITIONS THAT CAN SHARPLY INCREASE THE GENERATOR PERFORMANCE FAR BEYOND THE BEST LEVELS ACHIEVED TO-DATE. IN PHASE I OF THE PROJECT, THE PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COMBUSTOR WILL BE DETERMINED FROM NUCLEAR-MHD CYCLE ANALYSES, AND MHD GENERATOR ANALYSES. THE OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE CONDITIONS WILLBE SELECTED FOR A COMCEPTUAL DESIGN OF A CHEMICAL FUEL, COMBUSTOR-MHD SYSTEM. THE OUTPUT OF THE STUDY WILL BE THE CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF THE NOVEL CHEMICAL FUEL FIRED COMBUSTOR-MHD SYSTEM, AT A SCALE SUITABLE FOR LOW COST EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION IN SUBSQUENTPROJECT PHASES. VALIDATION OF THE PROPOSED COMBUSTOR CONCEPT WOULD REPRESENT A MAJOR ADVANCE IN HIGH POWER GENERATION TECHNOLOGY, FOR BOTH PULSED AND CONTINUOUS APPLICATIONS. ANOTHER OUTPUT OF THE STUDY WILL DETERMINATE THE PERFORMANCE POTENTIAL OF A NOVEL HYBRID BRAYTON-RANKLINEMHD POWER CYCLE, USING THE ABOVE NUCLEAR REACTORS AS A HEAT SOURCE.