We present a coupled thermo-mechanical creep analysis for a Nordic BWR lower head with a non-homogeneous debris bed configuration generated with MELCOR code. A one-way coupling approach was adopted which uses the Phase-Change Effective Convectivity Model implemented in Fluent to simulate the convective heat transfer in the melt pool and the ANSYS Mechanical to simulate the vessel wall deformation induced by the thermal and mechanical load from the debris. An initial non-homogeneity of debris bed was estimated using MELCOR core relocation simulation results specifying the mass of each component (UO2/Zr/ZrO2/SS/SSOX) and temperature in each MELCOR cell of the lower head. A mapping scheme was designed to transfer this non-homogeneities debris bed to Fluent through User Defined Functions. All components were locally treated in Fluent as one ideal phase by averaging the weights of element-specific mass fractions inside each cell. Material properties (density, heat capacity, etc.) and volumetric heat in the debris were both spatial- and temperature-dependent. Meanwhile, additional simulations using homogeneous debris bed configuration but with the same amount of mass compositions were run for comparison. Results including temperature escalation, vessel failure timing and location were analyzed and compared.
QCR 20191015