Author(s)

Z.P. Dong & M.A. Ebadian

Abstract

Combined natural and forced convection in a vertical cusped duct Z.P. Dong, M.A. Ebadian Department of Mechanical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA INTRODUCTION In the unlikely event of a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) in a pressur- ized water reactor, the fuel rod cladding may swell due to a combination of pressure difference across the cladding and an increase of the temperature in the core. In this case, adjacent fuel rods may balloon until they make contact with neighboring rods, leading to a reduction in the subchannel flow area and a lessening core heat transfer in the region of the blockage. This blockage can be visualized as a cusped duct with four corners formed by assembling together four rods of equivalent diameters, Fig. 1. When LOCA occurs, an emergency core cooling system (ECCS) is supposed to kick in immediately to ensure that the tempera- ture of the nuclear fuel in the reactor core is maintained within

Keywords