A performance investigation of the GE-14 nuclear fuel bundle with weighted objective functions
Authors
Qureshi, Ferheen
ORCID
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Other Contributors
Ji, Wei
Sreepada, Sastry
Kang, Hyun
Sreepada, Sastry
Kang, Hyun
Issue Date
2017-05
Keywords
Nuclear engineering
Degree
MS
Terms of Use
This electronic version is a licensed copy owned by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY. Copyright of original work retained by author.
Full Citation
Abstract
The GE-14 fuel bundle design was deemed to be state of the art at its introduction in the 1990s. With the recent advancements in nuclear reactor design and fuel fabrication technology, GE-14 fuel design may find more room for improvement. In normal operations of nuclear reactors, GE-14 fuel assemblies experience non-uniform critical power ratio fluctuations axially, which inhibits optimal performance. This thesis research focuses on the characterization of GE-14 fuel bundle performance and applying weighted objective functions to optimize the fuel bundle design to permit greater performance. Using the Monte Carlo code, MCNP6, it was found that there is a strong axial peak of the GE-14 bundles in the power shaping zone of the bundle. This peak becomes a hot spot for any reactor thermal limits and therefore limits the amount of power, which can be produced in the bundle. The use of objective functions allowed for the weighted optimization of all considered parameters. The functions to optimize include the lattice enrichment, gadolinium content, multiplication factor, and power peaking factors. With the objective functions the optimization level was reduced from a value of 8.257 to 3.318. This was accomplished by minimizing both enrichment and gadolinium content, reducing the power peaking factors, and increasing reactivity.
Description
May 2017
School of Engineering
School of Engineering
Department
Dept. of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering
Publisher
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Relationships
Rensselaer Theses and Dissertations Online Collection
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