A new fuel modeling capability, CTFFuel, with a case study on the fuel thermal conductivity degradation

Journal Article · Mon Nov 19 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Nuclear Engineering and Design

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2018.11.010· OSTI ID:1489593

Toptan, Aysenur ^[1]; Salko, Robert K. ^[2]; Avramova, Maria N. ^[1]; Clarno, Kevin T. ^[2]; Kropaczek, David J. ^[3]

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1. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
3. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Here, a new fuel modeling capability, CTFFuel, is developed from the subchannel code, CTF. This code is a standalone interface to the CTF fuel rod models, allowing for fuel rod simulations to be run independently from the fluid. This paper provides an overview of the code with a case study on the thermal conductivity degradation of LWR fuels to demonstrate its capabilities. The modeling of fuel thermal conductivity degradation in the code is improved through the addition of new modeling options to account for the irradiation effects via globally defined parameters. After the initial implementation, a variety of order-of-accuracy tests and code comparisons are performed to test software quality. A controlled analysis is allowed by CTFFuel to verify the numerical scheme of CTF’s conduction solution and to benchmark its fuel temperature predictions against FRAPCON-4.0’s. Overall, the software quality and verification procedure ensures that the new model is coded correctly, that it properly interacts with the rest of the code.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1489593
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 22893875
• Journal Information: Nuclear Engineering and Design, Journal Name: Nuclear Engineering and Design Journal Issue: C Vol. 341; ISSN 0029-5493
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
CTF
CTFFuel
SQA
Thermal conductivity degradation
Verification