Numerically predicting horizontally oriented spent fuel rod surface temperatures
- Gram, Inc., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
A comparison between numerical calculations with use of commercial thermal analysis software packages and experimental data simulating a horizontally oriented spent fuel rod array was performed. Twelve cases were analyzed using air and helium for the fill gas, with three different heat dissipation levels. The numerically predicted temperatures are higher than the experimental data for all levels of heat dissipation with air as the fill gas. The temperature differences are 4[degree]C and 23[degree]C for the low heat dissipation and high heat dissipation, respectively. The temperature predictions using helium as a fill gas are lower than the experimental data for the low and medium heat dissipation levels. The temperature predictions are 1[degree]C and 6[degree]C lower than the experimental data for the low and medium heat dissipation, respectively. For the high heat dissipation level, the temperature predictions are 16[degree]C higher than the experimental data. Differences between the predicted and experimental temperatures can be attributed to several factors. These factors include experimental uncertainty in the temperature and heat dissipation measurements, actual convection effects not included in the model, and axial heat flow in the experimental data. This work demonstrates that horizontally oriented spent fuel rod surface temperature predictions can be made using existing commercial software packages. This work also shows that end effects, such as axial heat transfer through the spent fuel rods, will be increasingly important as the amount of dissipated heat increases.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 6690603
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-92-2900C; CONF-930408--9; ON: DE93006287
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Use of a commercial heat transfer code to predict horizontally oriented spent fuel rod surface temperatures
Use of a commercial heat transfer code to predict horizontally oriented spent fuel rod temperatures
Related Subjects
Handling
& Storage
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPUTER CALCULATIONS
COMPUTER CODES
DATA
ENERGY SOURCES
ENERGY TRANSFER
EVALUATION
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FUELS
HEAT TRANSFER
INFORMATION
MATERIALS
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUMERICAL DATA
POSITIONING
REACTOR MATERIALS
SPENT FUELS
SURFACES
TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT
THERMAL ANALYSIS
TRANSPORT