NUMERICAL SOLUTION OF FUEL-ELEMENT THERMAL-STRESS PROBLEMS

In developing a method of numerical analysis for the solution of thermal- stress problems special emphasis was given to fuel elements with internal coolant channels. Numerical techniques ior reducing the partial differential equation system te a form suitable for numerical solution and a new iteratlve method of solving large systems of linear algebraic equations were employed. Computer codes were devised to obtain the numerical solution of the thermal-stress problems and were used to obtain numerical results for single-hole and seven-hole hexagonal elements and plate-type elements. Comparisons were made between analytical results and numerical results for the case of t:.ie simple annulus shape. (auth)