3D COMSOL Simulations for Thermal Deflection of HFIR Fuel Plate in the "Cheverton-Kelley" Experiments

Jain, Prashant K¹  Freels, James D¹  Cook, David Howard¹ 

[1] ORNL

关键词: HFIR;    COMSOL;    LEU Conversion;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1047622
RP-ID  :  ORNL/TM-2012/138
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1047622
Others  :  Other: NN9002000
Others  :  MDGA518

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来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

Three dimensional simulation capabilities are currently being developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory using COMSOL Multiphysics, a finite element modeling software, to investigate thermal expansion of High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) s low enriched uranium fuel plates. To validate simulations, 3D models have also been developed for the experimental setup used by Cheverton and Kelley in 1968 to investigate the buckling and thermal deflections of HFIR s highly enriched uranium fuel plates. Results for several simulations are presented in this report, and comparisons with the experimental data are provided when data are available. A close agreement between the simulation results and experimental findings demonstrates that the COMSOL simulations are able to capture the thermal expansion physics accurately and that COMSOL could be deployed as a predictive tool for more advanced computations at realistic HFIR conditions to study temperature-induced fuel plate deflection behavior.