Influence of radiation heat transfer during a severe accident

The aim of this work is to determine the influence of the radiation heat transfer on an average fuel channel during a severe accident of a BWR nuclear power plant. The analysis considers the radiation heat transfer in a participating medium, where the gases inside the system participate in the radiation heat transfer. We consider the steam-water mixture as an isothermal gray gas, and the boundaries of the system as a gray diffuse isothermal surface for the clad and refractory surfaces for the rest, and consider the average fuel channel as an enclosure system. During a severe accident, generation and diffusion of hydrogen begin at high temperature range (1,273 to 2,100 K), and the fuel rod cladding oxidation, but the hydrogen generated do not participate in the radiation heat transfer because it does not have any radiation properties. The heat transfer process in the fuel assembly is considered with a reduced order model, and from this, the convection and the radiation heat transfer is introduced in the system. In this paper, a system with and without the radiation heat transfer term was calculated and analyzed in order to obtain the influence of the radiation heat transfer on the average fuel channel. We show the behavior of radiation heat transfer effects on the temporal evolution of the hydrogen concentration and temperature profiles in a fuel assembly, where a stream of steam is flowing. Finally, this study is a practical complement for more accurate modeling of a severe accident analysis. (Author)