COMPUTER SIMULATIONS OF A GENERIC TRUCK CASK IN A REGULATORY FIRE USING THE CASK ANALYSIS FIRE ENVIRONMENT (CAFE) CODE

The Cask Analysis Fire Environment (CAFE) computer code is designed to accurately predict convection and radiation heat transfer to a thermally massive object engulfed in a large pool fire. It is well suited for design and risk analyses of spent nuclear fuel transport systems. CAFE employs computational fluid dynamics and several fire and radiation models. These models maximize CAFE’s accuracy while minimizing its computer turnaround time. However, these models must be benchmarked using experimental results. In this paper, a set of wind velocity conditions are determined that allow CAFE to accurately reproduce recent heat transfer measurements for a thick walled calorimeter in a regulatory pool fire. CAFE is then used to predict the response of an intact (thin walled) generic legal weight truck cask. The maximum temperatures reached by internal components are within safe limits. A simple 800°C, gray-radiation fire model gives maximum component temperatures that are somewhat below those predicted by CAFE. However, the difference would be larger for damaged (thick walled) packages.