Nuclear problem -- Technical

[nafira]

Hello everyone !

I'm requesting your help to undertand why my 6 reactor setup isn't working properly.

This is the setup (image 10MB, careful )

Setup

And this is the status :

• All my heatpipes are fine
• Water is ok
• Turbine are ok
• There's a huge 1-way buffer of storage tank

My problem is simple : my heat exchangers won't produce more than needed by the system and the buffer won't "ask" to be fulfilled !!

I first had a problem of turbines having steam flowing backward, so I resolved that by putting pumps in-between.
And now I'm stuck with those heat exchangers,which are at 600-700°C, but won't produce any steam.
Strange thing is that the exchangers not working are always the bottom ones, and the closest to water pump ...

On the very bottom of my screen, you can see an attempt to use pumps, but it's useless...

I made my math, everything is ok, I just don't understand why it's not at least trying to fill the tanks !!!


Thank you in advance for your response.

[Loewchen]

Post the save.

[nafira]

Post the save.

Added, and named 0.15.x because started in 0.15.x.

[Aeternus]

Your problem is max flow capacity in the pipe leading to/from the buffer.
Each heat exchanger produces 100 steam per second, provided they are above 500 dgr
You've got 11 per row. That's 1100 steam per row.
At the length of that pipe, your max flow should be around 900. So only one of the rows will be outputting into the top buffer, and the bottom row will be blocked due to the row above it utilizing the pipe leading to the small buffer being congested.

Suggested changes:
- Rearrange the steam tanks so that the heat exchangers are outputting directly into them. A double row of tanks should suffice. Attach the pumps to the tanks, and connect the heat exchanger row via a single underground pipe. Make sure each heat exchanger row outputs into a separate tank.
- Don't output 2 rows of heatexchangers into a single steam pipe. It won't be able to handle a 2200 rate of flow. Each row needs a separate pump for input, and a separate steampipe for output
- Forcefeed this output into the turbines via an extra pump. Attach these pumps to the bufer tanks. If you wish, crossconnect the turbines at the rear end.
- Optionally, divide your steam tanks in 2 rows of tanks, 2 wide. Connect them with pumps to force steam through rapidly, then activate the reactors once the second row starts to drop in pressure.
- Your generator cluster produces 800MW = 160GJ over 200 seconds. 30 GJ can be stored in the reactors. You need to buffer at most 130 GJ, which is roughly 50 tanks, if you want to run the plant at almost idle and not waste fuel.

This should work around the flow capacity problem you're running into

[Loewchen]

The steam piping is too long and can not transport what the heat exchanger would be able to output, I would switch the water input to the left between the reactor and the heat exchanger, shorten the exchanger line and instead add more lines, then close the gab between HE and turbines as much as possible.

[nafira]

Thanks for for the full explanation.
I couldn't put it together together with myself and the wiki ...