Investigation of Zircaloy-2 oxidation model for SFP accident analysis

The authors previously conducted thermogravimetric analyses on zircaloy-2 in air. By using the thermogravimetric data, an oxidation model was constructed in this study so that it can be applied for the modeling of cladding degradation in spent fuel pool (SFP) severe accident condition. For its validation, oxidation tests of long cladding tube were conducted, and computational fluid dynamics analyses using the constructed oxidation model were proceeded to simulate the experiments. In the oxidation tests, high temperature thermal gradient along the cladding axis was applied and air flow rates in testing chamber were controlled to simulate hypothetical SFP accidents. The analytical outputs successfully reproduced the growth of oxide film and porous oxide layer on the claddings in oxidation tests, and validity of the oxidation model was proved. Influence of air flow rate for the oxidation behavior was thought negligible in the conditions investigated in this study.
これまでにジルカロイ2被覆管の熱天秤による空気中酸化試験を行ったが、本研究ではそのデータに基づいて使用済み燃料プール(SFP)事故時の被覆管の酸化挙動の解析に適用可能な酸化モデルの構築を行った。その検証にあたり長尺被覆管の酸化試験に関して当該酸化モデルを適用した数値流体解析を行った。酸化試験はSFP事故を模擬した空気流量条件中で高温の温度勾配を付与して実施した。構築した酸化モデルを適用した解析は酸化試験での被覆管表面の酸化皮膜及び多孔質な酸化層の成長をよく再現し、酸化モデルの妥当性が確認できた。本研究の試験条件の範囲では空気流量条件の酸化挙動への影響は明らかには見られなかった。