Estudo do problema térmico na condução de calor bidimensional na vareta combustível com simulação multimétodos (elementos finitos e diferenças finitas)

Abstract

The objective of this work propose a simulation of steady-state linear heat transfer in a fuel rod, focusing on the use of the innovative method developed by Santos and Dutra do Carmo et al. in [1], which couples finite elements and finite differences in a non-iterative way. As an example for the application of this methodology, a PWR type reactor was considered, with its constructive/operational characteristics obtained from Todreas in [2]. Initially, the geometry and mesh were constructed using the Gmsh software [3], in which simulations were subsequently performed using the FE/FD coupling methodology, comparing them with conventional simulations using the finite element method (FEM). All numerical experiments were performed using software developed in PEN/COPPE, in which the assembly times of the matrices and problem resolution, loss of accuracy in the solution, and percentage error were verified. It is worth noting that the results found were satisfactory, with a decrease in processing and CPU times, high precision/accuracy in the comparison between FE/FD and FE, and low percentage error, proving that coupling was advantageous in all experiments performed for this class of problem.