Abstract :
ThedevelopmentoftheGenerationIV(Gen-IV)nuclearreactorshaspresentedsocial,technical,andeconomicalchallengestonuclearengineeringdesignandresearch.Todeveloparobust,reliablenuclearreactorsystemwithminimalenvironmentalimpactandcost,modularityhasbeengraduallyacceptedasakeyconceptindesigninghigh-qualitynuclearreactorsystems.Whiletheestablishmentandreliabilityofanuclearpowerplantislargelyfacilitatedbytheinstallmentofstandardizedbaseunits,therealizationofmodularityatthesub-system/sub-unitlevelinabaseunitisstillhighlyheuristic,andlacksconsistent,quantifiablemeasures.Inthiswork,anaxiomaticdesignapproachisdevelopedtoevaluateandoptimizethereactorcavitycoolingsystem(RCCS)ofGeneralAtomics’GasTurbine-ModularHeliumReactor(GT-MHR)nuclearreactor,forthepurposeofconstructingaquantitativetoolthatisapplicabletoGen-IVsystems.AccordingtoSuhʹsaxiomaticdesigntheory,modularityisconsistentlyrepresentedbyfunctionalindependencethroughthedesignprocess.BothqualitativeandquantitativemeasuresaredevelopedheretoevaluatethemodularityofthecurrentRCCSdesign.Optimizationtechniquesarealsousedtoimprovethemodularityatbothconceptualandparametriclevel.Thepreliminaryresultsofthisstudyhavedemonstratedthattheaxiomaticdesignapproachhasgreatpotentialinenhancingmodulardesign,andgeneratingmorerobust,safer,andlessexpensivenuclearreactorsub-units.
