Multiphysics software package for 3D calculations of the characteristics for a thermionic fuel element of nuclear power plants for space applications

On the basis of the modern software package Comsol Multiphysics the authors developed a basic version of the program method, named COMSOL-TFE, for performing three-dimensional calculations of the thermionic fuel elements (TFE) thermal and electrical characteristics as part of the nuclear reactors for space and ground applications. The main functional capabilities of the developed COMSOL-TFE optimized for the TFE calculation of any construction are described in this work. Expansion of functionality of the TFE mathematical model in COMSOL-TFE is carried out by adding new program modules (physical partitions) to the basic mathematical model of electrothermophysical processes in TFE. The description of the developed program module that allows to calculate the effect of the TFE own magnetic field on its characteristics is provided in the paper. Several test calculations for a single- and multi-cell TFE were performed for processing test the created mathematical model of the influence of the TFE own magnetic field.