Effect of creep on thermal fracturing in oxide crusts. [LMFBR]

Conference · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1978

OSTI ID:6703925

Lipinski, R J

The stability of a fuel crust, especially on a molten sublayer such as steel, has been the subject of several papers. If the fuel crust is found to be unstable, the effect on a core-disruption accident could be far reaching: fuel would freeze more quickly in the structure above and below the core causing a plug and limiting the amount of early fuel dispersal, and high heat transfer to uninsulated walls, along with entrainment of cool steel droplets, would cool the fuel pool and reduce the amount of boilup. In a single subassembly accident, ablation of the walls would increase, thus increasing the amount of radial damage and the possibility of accident propagation. Conversely, a stable fuel crust would in general delay wall ablation and enhance upward fuel dispersal. It was recently proposed by Ostensen that a fuel crust would crack from thermal stress alone through as much as 75% of its thickness. In that paper, the effect of creep was left for future study. It is the purpose of this work to investigate that effect. A fuel crust growing on a layer of molten steel was considered.

• Research Organization: Sandia Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-04-0789
• OSTI ID: 6703925
• Report Number(s): SAND-78-0255C; CONF-780622-4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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