OECD/NEA benchmark on pellet-clad mechanical interaction modelling with fuel performance codes; Impact of number of radial pellet cracks and pellet-clad friction coefficient

Dostl, M.*; Rossiter, G.*; Dethioux, A.*; Zhang, J.*; 天谷 政樹; Rozzia, D.*; Williamson, R.*; Kozlowski, T.*; Hill, I.*; Martin, J.-F.*

Proceedings of Annual Topical Meeting on Reactor Fuel Performance (TopFuel 2018) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2018/10

The benchmark on PCMI was initiated by OECD/NEA Expert Group on Reactor Fuel Performance (EGRFP) in June 2015 and is currently in the latter stages of compiling results and preparing the final report. The aim of the benchmark is to improve understanding and modelling of PCMI amongst NEA member organisations. This is being achieved by comparing PCMI predictions of different fuel performance codes for a number of cases. Two of these cases are hypothetical cases aiming to facilitate understanding of the effects of code-to-code differences in fuel performance models. The two remaining cases are actual irradiations, where code predictions are compared with measured data. During analysis of participants' results of the hypothetical cases, the assumptions for number of radial pellet cracks and the pellet-clad friction coefficient (which can be zero, finite or infinite) were identified to be important factors in explaining differences between predictions once pellet-cladding contact occurs. However, these parameters varied in the models and codes used originally by the participants. This fact led to the extension of the benchmark by inclusion of two additional cases, where the number of radial pellet cracks and three different values of the friction coefficient were prescribed in the case definition. Seven calculations from six organisations contributed results were compared and analysed in this paper.