Axial gas flow in irradiated PWR fuel rods

Transient and steady state axial gas flow experiments were performed on six irradiated, commercial pressurized water reactor fuel rods at ambient temperature and 533 K. Laminar flow equations, as used in the FRAP-T2 and SSYST fuel behavior codes, were used with the gas flow results to calculate effective fuel rod radial gaps. The results of these analyses were compared with measured gap sizes obtained from metallographic examination of one fuel rod. Using measured gap sizes as input, the SSYST code was used to calculate pressure drops and mass fluxes and the results were compared with the experimental gas flow data