Thermohydraulic and thermal stress aspects of a porous blockage in an LMFBR fuel assembly
The current safety scenarios of Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactors (LMFBR) under local fault propagation include the study of a hypothetical accident initiated by the formation of an external debris porous blockage in a fuel subassembly. In this preliminary experimental and analytical investigation, a non-heat-generating porous blockage was postulated to cover 18 flow channels of a 37 pin Fast Test Reactor (FTR) type fuel subassembly. The axial extent of the blockage is 50 mm. The blockage material is stainless steel (SS 316) with 30 percent average porosity (percent void volume). The blockage and the pins were modeled with a finite element technique and the thermal field in the blockage was predicted. This thermal field was utilized to do a planar thermal stress analysis of the postulated blockage. To verify the analytical model and also to better understand the thermal-hydraulics of such a porous blockage out-of-pile tests were conducted in a sodium loop. Data from the out-of-pile tests was utilized to calibrate and improve the analytical model.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 5853834
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-790802-62
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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