Convective heat transfer in spent fuel canisters

In this paper engineering correlations for convective heat transfer in enclosed vertical rod-bundles are reviewed. A criterion is proposed for determination of the heat transfer regime in the enclosure so that relevant correlations can be used. Moreover, a procedure for calculation of an approximate maximum center rod temperature in the canister is proposed. The procedure is applied to a PWR assembly, and the predicted values are compared with the measured data. Considering the approximate nature of the proposed procedure and the complexity of the problem, the predicted values are judged to be in good agreement with the measured values