Numerical Simulation Research on the Performance of SCWR Fuel Rod

Because of the high temperature and high pressure characteristics of supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR), the thermal hydraulic performance of SCWR is greatly different from pressurized water reactor (PWR), which makes the current PWR fuel rod performance analysis codes are no longer applicable to SCWR. In this research, the irradiation swelling, irradiation densification, thermal expansion, thermal creep, plastic deformation, irradiation creep and irradiation hardening of UO2 pellet, and stainless steel cladding were considered; the gas conductance and radiant conductance of gap heat transfer were considered, the forced convective heat transfer on the outer surface of cladding was considered. Meanwhile, the irradiation effects and the thermal effects on the materials parameters such as thermal conductivity, specific heat, and young’s modulus were also considered in this research. With the help of abaqus software, the related user-defined subroutines were developed, and the irradiation effects and thermal effects of SCWR fuel were introduced into the numerical simulation, and then completed the analysis of SCWR fuel rods’ performance under steady power conditions. Some reference suggestions for the design and development of SCWR fuel could be provided by the establishment of this numerical simulation method.