THE CALCULATION OF RADIAL TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTIONS IN CYLINDRICAL FUEL SPECIMENS DURING NEUTRON IRRADIATION. Metallurgy Program 6.1.26
A knowledge of the temperature distribution within a fuel sample during irradiation is required in order to evaluate the changes that occur in the physical and metallurgical propertoies of a fuel material upon irradiation. Because it is often impractical to measure temperatures within a fuel sample during irradiation, it is frequently necessary to rely upon computed values of the temperature. Therefore, a brief description and a comparison of the methods most frequently used for computing radial temperature distributions within irradiation samples are presented. The calculation of temperature distributions in samples containing fissionable isotopes is complicated by a number of variables, among which are the variation of heat production throughout the sample (due to local neutron-flux perturbations) and the variation of thermal conductivity occasioned by unusually steep temperature gradients. Various assumptions, which are considered to fit most closely the conditions at hand, are made for these calculations. As no standard set of assumptions can fit all cases, four illustrative cases are presented, representing four different sets of conditions applied to the heatconduction equation. The four cases considered may be briefly described as follows: varlable thermal conductivity, nonuniform heat production; variable thermal conductivity, uniform heat production; constant thermal conductivity, nonuniform heat production; and constant thermal conductivity, uniform heat production. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., Lemont, Ill.
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31-109-ENG-38
- NSA Number:
- NSA-13-003364
- OSTI ID:
- 4288075
- Report Number(s):
- ANL-5873
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-59
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
PRESSURIZED WATER REACTOR (PWR) PROJECT TECHNICAL PROGRESS REPORT FOR THE PERIOD DECEMBER 24, 1959 TO FEBRUARY 23, 1960
Use of numerical heat-transfer techniques to analyze thermal-comparator conductivity measurements