ICONE23-1408 AXIAL LOAD BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS OF ZIRCALOY-4 CLADDING UNDER LOCA QUENCH CONDITIONS

Abstract

Loss-of-Coolant-Accident (LOCA) is a classical design basis accident which would be considered in LWR safety analyses. The development of LOCA simulation technique can benefit from thorough understanding of local thermal-mechanical states of the axial load on the cladding. This paper describes some analysis results of the updated RANNS code developed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) as well as LOCA quench experiments. This update includes equations which are newly derived in a study based on published data regarding the thermal diffusivity and the thermal expansion. In addition, the measured axial load gain of a single-sided oxidized cladding was compared with the simulation results using the updated RANNS simulation, and they agreed quite well. Finally, the effect of the axial temperature profile of the cladding on the axial load gains is discussed and it is found that this effect is small.