(An) experimental investigation of the temperature behavior of a CANDU 37-element spent fuel bundle with air backfill

Abstract

As part of the thermal analysis of a CANDU spent fuel dry storage system, a series of experiment has been conducted using a thermal mock-up of a simulated CANDU spent fuel bundle in a dry storage basket. The experimental system was designed to obtain the maximum fuel rod temperature along with the radial and axial temperature distributions within the fuel bundle. The main purpose of these experiments was to characterize the relevant heat transfer mechanisms in a dry, vertically oriented CANDU spent fuel bundle, and to verify the MAXROT code developed for the thermal analysis of a CANDU spent fuel bundle in a dry storage basket. A total of 48 runs were made with 8 different power inputs to the 37-element heater rod bundle ranging from 5 to 40 W, while using 6 different band heaters power inputs from 0 to 250 W to maintain the basket wall at a desired boundary condition temperature at the steady state. The temperature distribution in a heater rod bundle was measured and recorded at the saturated condition for each set of heater rod power and band heaters power. To characterize the heat transfer mechanism involved, the experimental data were corrected analytically for radiation heat transfer and presented as a Nusselt number correlation in terms of the Rayleigh number of the heater rod bundle. The results show that the Nusselt number remains nearly constant and all the experimental dada fall within a conduction regime. The experimental data were compared with the predictions of the MAXROT code to examine the code``s accuracy and validity of assumptions used in the code. The MAXROT code explicitly models each representative fuel rod in a CANDU fuel bundle and couples the conductive and radiative heat transfer of the internal gas between rods. Comparisons between the measured and predicted maximum fuel rod temperatures of the simulated CANDU 37-element spent fuel bundle for all 48 tests show that the MAXROT code slightly over-predicts and the agreement is within 2.8...