Transient analysis of temperature field and fission gas about the arc plate fuel element

Abstract

Obtaining the temperature field and fission gas release of fuel elements are crucial to the study on fuel behaviors and ensure the safety of elements. In order to enhance fuel efficiency, providing a design idea to make the fast reactor with high flux and multi-function, we have designed a core of the lead-based fast reactor with arc plate fuel elements. Based on above, a transient performance analysis program of arc plate fuel elements (TPAPAFE) was developed in this paper, for analyzing the thermal and fission gas module of arc plate fuel element by calculating transient variation in the maximum pellet temperature, internal and external coolant outlet temperature, and fission gas release share. The modular verification was done by comparing the results of TPAPAFE with others. Besides, the result of the arc plate fuel analyzed by TPAPAFE shows that the code is feasible and rational, and the single arc plate is so thin that coolant outlet temperatures on both sides of the plate are almost the same. Meanwhile, the error in temperature data between TPAPAFE and the steady-state program is only 5%. Furthermore, fission gas release fraction increased linearly with pellet temperature and bubble growth.