Fast Reactors and Accelerator Driven Systems Knowledge Base

Conference Article: Thermal hydraulic behavior of sub-assembly local blockage in China experiment fast reactor

Yang Zhimin (China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing (China))

Abstract

The geometrical parameter ratio of pitch to diameter of China Experiment Fast Reactor (CEFR) subassembly is 1.167. To address the thermal hydraulic behavior of subassembly local blockage which may be caused by deformation of cladding due to severe swelling and thermal stresses and by space swirl loosening etc., the porous numerical model and SIMPLE-P code used to solve Navier-Stokes and energy equations in porous medium was developed, and the bundle experiment with 19 pins with 24 subchannels blocked in the sodium coolant was carried on in China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE). The comparison of code predictions against experiments (including non-blockage and ten blockage conditions) seems well. The thermal hydraulic behavior of fuel subassembly with 61 fuel pins blockage of CEFR is calculated with SIMPLE-P code. The results indicate that the maximum temperature is 815°C when the blockage area is about 37% (54 central subchannels are blocked). In this case the cladding won’t be damaged and no sodium coolant boiling takes place. Keywords subassembly blockage thermal,hydraulic behavior

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key words: cefr reactor; cladding; deformation; fuel assemblies; hydrodynamics; navier-stokes equations; s codes; temperature distribution; thermal analysis
Reference:
Technical committee meeting on methods and codes for calculations of thermohydraulic parameters for fuel, absorber pins and assemblies of LMFR's with traditional and burner cores. Obninsk (Russian Federation) 27-31 Jul 1998
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)
IAEA-TECDOC--1157, pp:276-283