Abstract:
The effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of dispersion fuels plays an important role in nuclear reactor safety analysis and fuel performance evaluation. In this study, based on the theory of porous body, considering the relativity of dispersion particle distributions, an ETC model of dispersion fuels was proposed and validated. The effect of porosity, fuel volume fraction and fuel-matrix thermal conductivity ratio on the ETC were investigated. The results show that the ETC decreases along with the increasing of fuel volume fraction and porosity; the higher the fuel-matrix thermal conductivity ratio is, the less the effect of fuel volume fraction on the ETC of dispersion fuel is.