A novel method for calculating annular fuel cell resonance effective temperature

Abstract

Annular fuels can increase the power density of reactors because of their double-sided cooling design, which is of great significance to the miniaturization and long-life operation of pressurized water reactors. In this study, a thermal–hydraulic analysis code named Thermal-Hydraulic Code of Annular Fuel with Single channel (THCAFS) was developed for annular fuels, and a calculation model for the resonance effective temperature of annular fuel cells was established. An annular fuel cell of a four-loop pressurized water reactor (PWR) designed by Westinghouse company was used as the calculation object, and the numerical results of THCAFS were compared with those of existing sub-channel codes such as VIPRE-01, TAFAX, and NACAF. Meanwhile, the Monte Carlo code RMC was used to simulate the radial power distribution and burnup process of the annular fuel, and its thermodynamic behavior was simulated using the self-developed code THCAFS. The radial power distribution, nuclide density variation, and cell temperature field under different burnup levels were also obtained, and the reaction rate equivalence was used instead of the effective resonance integral to investigate the calculation method used for resonance effective temperature of the annular fuel cell. The results show that THCAFS can be preliminarily applied to annular fuel designs and thermal–hydraulic analysis, while the effective temperature calculation method can provide important reference values for studying the resonance effective temperature of annular fuels.