Radiant heat transfer from storage casks to the environment

Conference · Mon May 10 04:00:00 EDT 1999

OSTI ID:9880

Carlson, R W ^[1]; Hovingh, J; Thomas, G R

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1. LLNL

A spent fuel storage cask must efficiently transfer the heat released by the fuel assemblies through the cask walls to the environment. This heat must be transferred through passive means, limiting the energy transfer mechanisms from the cask to natural convection and radiation heat transfer.. Natural convection is essentially independent of the characteristics of the array of casks, provided there is space between casks to permit a convection loop. Radiation heat transfer, however, depends on the geometric arrangement of the array of casks because the peripheral casks will shadow the interior casks and restrict radiant heat transfer from all casks to the environment. The shadowing of one cask by its neighbors is determined by a view factor that represents the fraction of radiant energy that leaves the surface of a cask and reaches the environment. This paper addresses the evaluation of the view factor between a centrally located spent fuel storage cask and the environment. By combining analytic expressions for the view factor of (1) infinitely long cylinders and (2) finite cylinders with a length-to-diameter ratio of 2 to represent spent fuel storage casks, the view factor can be evaluated for any practical array of spent fuel storage casks.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environment, Safety and Health (EH) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 9880
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC-132347; EX02MM120; EX02MM120
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
FUEL ASSEMBLIES
NATURAL CONVECTION
RADIANT HEAT TRANSFER
SPENT FUEL CASKS
SPENT FUEL STORAGE