Abstract
Under a postulated scenario of Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) with un-availability of emergency core cooling system (ECCS) for Indian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (IPHWR), the channel integrity needs to be assured. An experimental facility is presently being developed at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT R) India to study such a severe event. In this study a CFD simulation of fuel bundle weight simulator is being carried out using ANSYS 19.0 in transient thermal analysis using ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL) solver. The test facility aims to estimate the thermal aspect of weight bundle simulator which is the source of heat generation for pressure tube. Thermo-mechanical deformation of pressure tube will depend on the heat source, therefore it is of great importance to check the thermal integrity of weight bundle fuel simulator. Power requirement, weight, and dimensions of weight bundle fuel simulator is similar to the actual fuel bundle used in 700 MWe IPHWR. Simulation was done for 3 % and 2% decay heat. From analysis it was found that the rate of temperature rise in pressure tube with 3 % decay heat reached a maximum of 2 0C/sec and average rate of temperature rise was around 1 0C/sec whereas with 2% decay heat, pressure tube maximum temperature rise was 1.5 0C/sec and average rate 0.8 0C/sec. Results obtained will be further used for designing of 700 MWe full length channel set-up.
Highlights
Indian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (IPHWR) of 700 MWe capacities consists of an integral assembly of 392 reactor channels
Experiments conducted by Gillespie et al [3] concluded that the ballooning or sagging in Pressure Tube (PT) depends on internal pressure, top of the PT contacted Calandria Tube (CT) first when pressure was above 2.5 MPa and the bottom of the PT contact the CT first when the pressure was less than 1 MPa
In calandria tube there was no change in temperature up to 500 sec after that there is a rise in temperature reaching to a maximum of 101 0C, this is due to rise in temperature of pressure tube above 500 0C
Summary
Indian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (IPHWR) of 700 MWe capacities consists of an integral assembly of 392 reactor channels. This loss of coolant causes the fuel bundle temperature to rise due to the decay heat and the stored heat of fuel bundle. The sagging and ballooning of PT causes PT-CT contact When this contact is established, the deformation and temperature rise is arrested due to dispersion of accumulated heat to the moderator.
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