Parametric study of thermo-mechanical behaviour of 19-element PHWR fuel bundle having AHWR fuel material

AHWR Th-LEU of 4.3 weight % ²³⁵U enrichment is a fuel design option for its trial irradiation in Indian PHWRs. The important component of this option is the large enhancement in the average discharge burn-up from the core. A parametric study of the 19-element fuel bundle, with natural uranium currently is being used in all operating 220 MWe PHWRs, has been carried out for AHWR Th-LEU fuel material by computer code FUDA MOD2. The important fuel parameters such as fuel temperature, fission gas release, fuel swelling and sheath strain have been analyzed for required fuel performance. With Th-LEU, average discharge burnups of about 25,000 MW-d/TeHE can be achieved. The FUDA code (Fuel Design Analysis code) MOD2 version has been used in the fuel element analysis. The code takes into account the inter-dependence of different parameters like fuel pellet temperatures, pellet expansions, fuel-sheath gap heat transfer, sheath strain and stresses, fission gas release and gas pressures, fuel densification etc. Thermo-mechanical analysis of fuel element having AHWR material is carried out for the bundle power histories reaching up to design burn-up 40000 MWd/TeHE. The resultant parameters such as fuel temperature, sheath plastic strain and fission gas pressure for AHWR fuel element were compared with respective thermo-mechanical parameters for similar fuel bundle element with natural uranium as fuel material. (author)