Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Gas Gap Conductance Between Ht9 And Ss316, Michael Luke Scoggins, Chris Martinez

Student Research Symposium

Inside a nuclear reactor, it is important to understand in detail the heat transfer between surfaces. This research aims to ensure the safety of new fuel experiments in the Idaho National Laboratory test reactor by studying the thermal properties of stainless steel and high temperature steel surfaces with a microscopic gas gap between them. The complex behavior of the gas requires a combination of experimental and theoretical modeling. A technique called laser flash analysis is being applied to calculate the effective thermal conductivity of the metal-gas-metal composite sample. From there, gap conductance is calculated using the other known physical parameters …