Buoyancy and radial power skew effects on wire-wrapped rod bundle thermal hydraulics in an LMFBR fuel assembly

Thermal hydraulics in a rod bundle are presented for determining buoyancy force and radial power skew effects. Experimental data were obtained from sodium temperature measurements for the rod bundle over a wide range of flow and power skew conditions in a liquid-metal cooled fast breeder reactor fuel assembly. Experimental results for a transverse temperature peaking have indicated typical characteristics for forced, mixed and natural convection regimes. In the forced convection regime, the transverse temperature peaking depends on radial power skew, but is independent of the buoyancy effect