Studies on Nuclear Fuel Rod Thermal Performance

AbstractIn this article we used ABAQUS software to study temperature and heat flux changes in a nuclear fuel rod. This software is based on finite element method. For this case, it divides nuclear fuel rod to series of elements and then investigates the changes in each element. During this study, we divide a nuclear fuel rod to 10 elements. Since the thermal conductivity depends on temperature and temperature is different in one nodal point to other point (in radial direction), each element has a different thermal conductivity. During this article, the temperature distribution is investigated in each nodal point and finally we represent the general expression for the temperature and heat flux changes in radial directio