Dhaka University Journal of Applied Science & Engineering

• Farhana Islam Farha
  Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000
• Md. Hossain Sahadath
  Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000

The solid and annular cylindrical nuclear fuel element comprising UO2, Helium gas, and Zircaloy-4 typically used in Pressurized Water Reactors has been modeled using the engineering simulation software Ansys Mechanical APDL 17.0. Radial temperature distribution, as well as thermal heat flux distribution and thermal gradient distribution, have been simulated in the developed model by employing a linear solution. Results demonstrate that temperature distribution occurs in a bell-shaped manner radially across a solid fuel element, while maximum heat flux occurs at the inner surface of the cladding; and the pellet-cladding boundary regions are subjected to the highest amount of thermal gradient, and consequently, thermal stress. The heat flux and thermal gradient have been found higher for annular rod whereas solid fuel shows the higher fuel temperature. The developed model has been validated by analytically computing the temperature distribution of the same model, which showed a result analogous to the simulated result

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