Bounding analysis of temperature excursions in accidents using finite element analysis

Analysis of hypothetical total and unmitigated loss-of-coolant accidents, in the context of European conceptual power plant design studies, is required to establish upper limits of temperature excursions in the structure due to decay heat. Previous studies and results, as in SEAFP-2, have revealed several key areas where it is clear that more realistic modelling of thermal transient events in fusion power plants could remove excessive conservatism in accident analysis and improve results. This may be achieved with the use of a finite element analysis code which allows two and three dimensional geometry treatments. A computer programme has been written which, based on chosen power plant parameters, builds a command input file for the finite element analysis code. The parametric nature of this programme allows for various heat loading inputs and geometries to be treated. Example calculations for typical power plant parameters are given.