Three-Dimensional Thermal Aspects of Aluminum Fuel Elements

Aluminum-clad fuel plates generally used in nuclear research reactors have unique heat transfer characteristics that require three-dimensional heat conduction modeling without large conservatism. A model, ATR SINDA, was written to interface with the thermal analyzer SINDA, for analysis of the Advanced Test Reactor fuel plates. Comparative analyses with two- and three-dimensional models show significantly higher fuel and coolant temperatures with the two-dimensional model. Comparative analyses also demonstrate that departure from nucleate boiling depends on material.