Investigation of radiative and convective heat transfer in storage vaults for improving space efficiency

We used computational analysis in order to study the cooling effects of the cylindrical tubes located inside a storage vault for spent nuclear fuel. We considered the effects of the radiative and convective heat transfer on the cooling of the cylindrical tubes based on the non-dimensional maximum permissible surface temperature. We also identified the factors that affect the cooling of cylindrical tubes by investigating the cooling effects with the same heat source as a function of the distance between the tubes, the entrance length, and the tube arrangement. The thermal performance characteristics indicated that a non-uniform staggered tube array could be used in order to improve the storage efficiency of a vault in comparison to the reference uniform in-line tube arrangement, while maintaining the tube surface temperatures at a value below the maximum permissible temperature.