FRAPCON2/VIM5B. Fuel Rod Thermal-Mechanical Behavior

FRAPCON2/V1M5B is the most recent in the FRAPCON series of fuel rod response modeling programs. The FRAPCON series, like the earlier FRAP-S and GAPCON-THERMAL codes, is designed to predict the steady-state long-term burnup response of oxide fuel rods in light water reactors (LWRs). In addition, these codes generate the initial conditions for transient fuel rod analysis by the FRAP-T6 or thermal-hydraulic analysis programs. The FRAPCON2 programs calculate the temperature, pressure, deformation, and failure histories of a fuel rod as functions of time-dependent fuel rod power and coolant boundary conditions. The phenomena modeled by the code include heat conduction through the fuel and cladding, cladding elastic and plastic deformation, fuel-cladding mechanical interaction, fission gas release, fuel rod internal gas pressure, heat transfer between fuel and cladding, cladding oxidation, and heat transfer from cladding to coolant. Material properties, water properties, and heat transfer correlation data are included.