COUPLED THERMAL ANALYSIS APPLIED TO THE STUDY OF THE ROD EJECTION ACCIDENT

摘要

An advanced methodology for the assessment of fuel-rod thermal margins under RIA conditions has been developed by AREVA NP SAS. With the emergence of RIA analytical criteria, the study of the Rod Ejection Accident (REA) would normally require the analysis of each fuel rod, slice by slice, over the whole core. Up to now the strategy used to overcome this difficulty has been to perform separate analyses of sampled fuel pins with conservative hypotheses for thermal properties and boundary conditions. In the advanced methodology, the evaluation model for the Rod Ejection Accident (REA) integrates the node average fuel and coolant properties calculation for neutron feedback purpose as well as the peak fuel and coolant time-dependent properties for criteria checking. The calculation grid for peak fuel and coolant properties can be specified from the assembly pitch down to the cell pitch. The comparative analysis of methodologies shows that coupled methodology allows reducing excessive conservatism of the uncoupled approach.