HEAT TRANSFER FROM SPENT REACTOR FUELS DURING SHIPPING: A PROPOSED METHOD FOR PREDICTING TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION IN FUEL BUNDLES AND COMPARISON WITH EXPERIMENTAL DATA

Technical Report · Tue Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 1963

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4674885· OSTI ID:4674885

Watson, J. S.

A simple method is developed for calculating or predicting temperature distributions in spent reactor fuels in shipping casks. The method accounts for radiant heat transfer between all the individual pins in a square array. With the dimensions of the fuel bundle, the configuration factors for radiation between various tubes in the bundle can be obtained from the tabulated numerical calculations presented. The configuration factors, along with the heat generation rates, surface emissivity, and the temperature of the wall of the cask can be used to estimate the temperature distribution automatically with the computer code presented or possibly by hand calculations by the method outlined. Experimental measurements of temperature distribution in electrically heated tube arrays in steel shells that simulated shipping casks were made to test the proposed calculational procedure. Several heat generation rates and bundles containing up to 64 tubes were tested in 12-in.- and 6-in,-inner diameter shells. Tests were made with the casks in horizontal and vertical positions. The predicted temperatures were very near those observed experimentally under the conditions in which heat transfer is likely to be a problem in fuel shipment, that is, when the temperatures are near or above 200 c- C and the casks do not contain large empty spaces. These are the conditions where radiation should be expected to be the most important mechanism. The calculational method may also be adapted to nonsquare arrays. (auth)

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• NSA Number: NSA-17-025411
• OSTI ID: 4674885
• Report Number(s): ORNL-3439
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-63
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ENGINEERING AND EQUIPMENT
BURNUP
COMPUTERS
CONFIGURATION
DISTRIBUTION
EMISSION
FUEL ELEMENTS
HEAT TRANSFER
HEATING
MATHEMATICS
MEASURED VALUES
MOCKUP
NUMERICALS
PROGRAMMING
RADIATIONS
SHEETS
SHELLS
SPENT FUEL ELEMENTS
SURFACES
TABLES
TEMPERATURE
THERMAL RADIATION
THERMODYNAMICS
TRANSPORT
TUBES
VESSELS