Title: Detailed safety assessment for the VVER-1000 fuel assembly

Authors: Mohamed Y.M. Mohsen; Mohamed A.E. Abdel-Rahman

Addresses: Nuclear Engineering Department, Military Technical College, Kobry Elkobbah, Cairo, Egypt ' Nuclear Engineering Department, Military Technical College, Kobry Elkobbah, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract: This paper presents three main studies for one fuel assembly of the VVER-1000. The first study is the neutronic analysis using MCNPX. The second study is the thermal-hydraulic analysis. The third study is the solid mechanics analysis by using COMSOL-Multiphysics. The sequence of the above studies is set as follows: during the neutronic analysis, the main safety related parameters, fuel burn-up calculations and the power mapping are simulated. The analytical solution of the thermal-hydraulic revealed that, the maximum fuel and clad temperatures are 1398.9 K and 653.95 K, respectively. Finally, the solid mechanics analysis revealed that the maximum von Mises stress acting on both the fuel and clad materials are 91.81 MPa and 40.82 MPa, respectively, and the maximum fuel outer surface displacement equals to 0.06023 mm. The results obtained from this paper are in a good agreement with both the FSAR and the previous published works.

Keywords: VVER-1000; MCNPX; neutronic analysis; thermal-hydraulic analysis; solid mechanics analysis; PPF; hot channel; MATLAB; COMSOL-Multiphysics; MDNBR; FSAR.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNEST.2021.120138

International Journal of Nuclear Energy Science and Technology, 2021 Vol.15 No.1, pp.36 - 60

Received: 14 Nov 2020
Accepted: 10 Sep 2021
Published online: 07 Jan 2022 *