Development of a CATHENA Fuel Channel Analysis Model for a Fuel Channel with Axial Variation of Radial Pressure Tube Creep in a Stratified Two-Phase Flow Condition

A two-phase heat transfer phenomena in the fuel bundle strings located in a horizontal pressure tube with an axial variation of the radial creep, especially under a low stratified two-phase flow condition such as encountered in the CANDU reactor under the later stage of the blowdown phase of a LBLOCA, involves a complex heat transfer nature. This includes the conduction in the fuel rods, pressure tube, convection in the vapor and liquid regions, and radiation between the fuel rods exposed in the steam and the pressure tube, pressure tube and calandria tube. As these three modes of heat transfer has to be treated in a combined way, modeling the heat transfer phenomena inside the fuel bundle under the stratified flow during the later stage of LBLOCA blowdown has been one of the most challenging tasks in the CANDU safety analyses. The main reason for this hot attention is that it closely related to the integrity of the pressure tube. In this study a heat transfer model for handling this situation is developed, implemented and under preliminary testing of the analysis results. The analysis result up to now is encouraging and the validation of the model developed is ongoing. The major motivation of this study is to evaluate the conservatism of the current CANDU safety analysis methodology for a fuel channel with an axial variation of the radial creep of the pressure tube as easily experienced in the aged CANDU plant as it assumes the centerline of the fuel bundle string is the same as that of the pressure tube