Virgil E. Schrock

Bio: Virgil E. Schrock is an academic researcher from University of California, Berkeley. The author has contributed to research in topics: FLiBe & Condensation. The author has an hindex of 10, co-authored 22 publications receiving 349 citations.

HYLIFE-II: A Molten-Salt Inertial Fusion Energy Power Plant Design — Final Report

Abstract: Enhanced safety and performance improvements have been made to the liquid-wall HYLIFE reactor, yielding the current HYLIFE-II conceptual design. Liquid lithium has been replaced with a neutronically thick array of flowing molten-salt jets (Li[sub 2]BeF[sub 4] or Flibe), which will not burn, has a low tritium solubility and inventory, and protects the chamber walls, giving a robust design with a 30-yr lifetime. The tritium inventory is 0.5 g in the molten salt and 140 g in the metal of the tube walls, where it is less easily released. The 5-MJ driver is a recirculating induction accelerator estimated to cost $570 million (direct costs). Heavy-ion targets yield 350 MJ, six times per second, to produce 940 MW of electrical power for a cost of 6.5 cents/kW[center dot]h. Both larger and smaller yields are possible with correspondingly lower and higher pulse rates. When scaled up to 1934 MW (electric), the plant design has a calculated cost of electricity of 4.5 cents/kW[center dot]h. The design did not take into account potential improved plant availability and lower operations and maintenance costs compared with conventional power plant experience, resulting from the liquid wall protection. Such improvements would directly lower the electricity cost figures. For example,more » if the availability can be raised from the conservatively assumed 75% to 85% and the annual cost of component replacement, operations, and maintenance can be reduced from 6% to 3% of direct cost, the cost of electricity would drop to 5.0 and 3.9 cents/kW[center dot]h for 1- and 2-GW (electric) cases. 50 refs., 15 figs., 3 tabs.« less

Two-phase flow, boiling and condensation in conventional and miniature systems

Abstract: Providing a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals and applications of flow and heat transfer in conventional and miniature systems, this fully enhanced and updated edition covers all the topics essential for graduate courses on two-phase flow, boiling, and condensation. Beginning with a concise review of single-phase flow fundamentals and interfacial phenomena, detailed and clear discussion is provided on a range of topics, including two-phase hydrodynamics and flow regimes, mathematical modeling of gas-liquid two-phase flows, pool and flow boiling, flow and boiling in mini and microchannels, external and internal-flow condensation with and without noncondensables, condensation in small flow passages, and two-phase choked flow. Numerous solved examples and end-of-chapter problems that include many common design problems likely to be encountered by students, make this an essential text for graduate students. With up-to-date detail on the most recent research trends and practical applications, it is also an ideal reference for professionals and researchers in mechanical, nuclear, and chemical engineering.

An Improved and Extended General Correlation for Heat Transfer During Condensation in Plain Tubes

Abstract: An improved version of the authors's published correlation (Shah 1979), extended to a wider range of parameters, is presented. The new correlation has been shown to be in good agreement with data ranging from highly turbulent flows to the laminar flow conditions of Nusselt's analytical solutions. The data used for the correlation's validation includes 22 fluids (water, halocarbon refrigerants, hydrocarbon refrigerants, and organics) condensing in horizontal, vertical, and downward-inclined tubes. The range of parameters includes tube diameters from 2 to 49 mm, reduced pressure from 0.0008 to 0.9, flow rates from 4 to 820 kg/m2·s, all liquid Reynolds numbers from 68 to 85,000, and liquid Prandtl numbers from 1 to 18. A total of 1189 data points from 39 sources are predicted with a mean deviation of 14.4%. Comparisons are also made with some other well-known correlations.