Thermal hydraulic analysis of VVER spent fuels stored in vault dry system under different operating and design conditions
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Sayed A. Elnaggar
and
Ahmed M. Refaey
Abstract
The spent nuclear fuel discharged from power reactors is a very important problem facing the future of using power reactors in electricity production. This paper focuses on the thermal-hydraulic behaviour of the VVER spent fuel in the vault dry storage system under forced convection mode, which is experimentally and numerically investigated. For this purpose, a test rig is designed and constrained to simulate the cooling loop vault system that contains four spent fuel assemblies discharged from the VVER reactor, which are represented by four electric heaters. A numerical simulation is performed by the ANSYS-CFX fluid dynamics code. The effects of decay heat generation and inlet air velocity are investigated as an operating condition. Also, the effect of the type of the Vault System tube material is being studied. The results show that the increase in the inlet air velocity improves the coolability of the fuel, while the increase in decay heat leads to a decrease in the coolability of the fuel. The used velocity range is (0.1 < V < 0.5 m/s) for inlet coolant air and heater power (20 < P < 100 W). Three tube materials (aluminum, copper, and stainless steel) were evaluated for mechanical properties, including thermal conductivity, to assess the feasibility of their use as tubes in the spent fuel storage.
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Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
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Research funding: None declared.
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Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Scaling effect on cesium diffusion in compacted MX-80 bentonite for buffer materials in HLW repository
- Enhanced heat transfer in corrugated plate fin heat sink
- Discussion of options to increase the control drum worth in fast reactor
- New semi-empirical systematic of (p,n) reaction cross section at 7.5 MeV
- Computational analysis of nuclear desalination system under various configurations
- Performance analysis of nuclear powered desalination unit based on MED-TVC: a case study for Saudi Arabia
- Analysis of 4-inch cold leg top-slot break LOCA in ATLAS experimental facility using MARS-KS
- Evaluating the performance of Indonesia’s nuclear energy program using INPRO methodology
- Thermal hydraulic analysis of VVER spent fuels stored in vault dry system under different operating and design conditions
- Comparative analysis of swelling and porosity evolution in UO2 fuel via two approaches
- Euler–Maruyama algorithm in estimating UGV path and location in nuclear emergency and security applications
- Modeling and simulation of deposited energy gain via irradiation of heavy ion beams on the fusion reactor contains spherical fuel capsules with foam
- Calendar of events
