Benchmarking of Software and Methods for Use in Transient Multidimensional Fuel Performance with Spatial Reactor Kinetics
- ORNL
The key physics involved in accurate prediction of reactor-fuel-element behavior includes neutron transport and thermal hydraulics. The thermal hydraulic feedback mechanism is primarily provided through cross sections to the neutron transport that are temperature and density dependent. Historically, this coupling was primarily seen only in reactor simulators, which are well suited to model the reactor core, giving only a coarse treatment to individual fuel pins as well as simple models for thermal distribution calculations. This poor resolution on the primary coupling mechanisms can lead to conservatisms that should be removed to improve fuel design and performance. This work seeks to address the resolution of space-time-dependent neutron kinetics with thermal feedback within the fuel pin scale in the multiphysics framework. The specific application of this new capability is transient performance analysis of space-time-dependent temperature distribution of fuel elements. The coupling between the neutron transport and the thermal feedback is extremely important in this highly coupled problem, primarily applicable to reactivity-initiated-accidents (RIAs) and loss-of-coolant-accidents (LOCAs). The capability developed will include the coupling of the time-dependent neutron transport with the time-dependent thermal diffusion capability. An improvement in resolution and coupling is proposed by developing neutron transport models that are internally coupled with high fidelity within fuel pin thermal calculations in a multiphysics framework. Good agreement is shown with benchmarks and problems from the literature of RIAs and LOCAs for the tools used.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1048151
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICAPP '12, Chicago, IL, USA, 20120624, 20120628
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BENCHMARKS
COMPUTER CODES
CROSS SECTIONS
FEEDBACK
FUEL ELEMENTS
FUEL PINS
KINETICS
NEUTRON TRANSPORT
NEUTRONS
PHYSICS
REACTOR CORES
REACTOR KINETICS
REACTOR SIMULATORS
RESOLUTION
TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION
THERMAL DIFFUSION
THERMAL HYDRAULICS
TRANSIENTS