THE ROLE OF A FUEL ELEMENT AND ITS CLADDING IN WATER-COOLED REACTOR DYNAMICS

Technical Report · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1963

OSTI ID:4107031

Randles, J

The heat diffusion and transfer equations are solved in slab geometry for an oscillatory fission power and an oscillatory coolant temperature. From the resulting transfer functions a clear description of the effect of the cladding on the heat flow is obtained. A Mercury autocode program for evaluating the transfer functions is described. The heat diffusion equations are also solved for a cylindrical system exposed to an oscillatory fission power. The solutions are expressed as transfer functions and are obtainable numerically from another autocode program. Both of these programs are used to obtain the power- out/power-in transfer function for a typical cylindrical and slab UO/sub 2/ fuel pellet clad in Zircaloy. The results give a further indication of the effect of the cladding heat capacity over a wide frequency range. It is shown also that the effect of the geometrical difference between a slab and cylindrical fuel element is unimportant provided the surface to volume ratio of the fuel is the same in each case. (auth)

• Research Organization: United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. Reactor Group. Atomic Energy Establishment, Winfrith, Dorset, England
• NSA Number: NSA-18-007899
• OSTI ID: 4107031
• Report Number(s): AEEW-R-196
• Country of Publication: United Kingdom
• Language: English

Related Subjects

CANNING
COMPUTERS
COOLANT LOOPS
CYLINDERS
EQUATIONS
FREQUENCY
FUEL ELEMENTS
HEAT TRANSFER
HIGH TEMPERATURE
NEUTRON FLUX
NUMERICALS
PELLETS
PLATES
PROGRAMMING
REACTOR OSCILLATORS
REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
REACTORS
SPECIFIC HEAT
STABILITY
SURFACES
TEMPERATURE
THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
THERMAL DIFFUSION
TRANSFER FUNCTIONS
URANIUM DIOXIDE
VARIATIONS
VOLUME
WATER COOLANT
ZIRCALOY