Abstract
Dynamic contact impact from hydraulic flow-induced fuel assembly vibration is the source for grid-to-rod fretting in a pressurized water nuclear reactor (PWR). To support grid-to-rod fretting wear mitigation research, finite element analysis (FEA) was used to evaluate the hydraulic flow-induced impact intensity between the fuel rods and the spacer grids. Three-dimensional FEA models, with detailed geometries of the dimple and spring of the actual spacer grids along with fuel rods, were developed for flow impact simulation. The grid-to-rod dynamic impact simulation provided insights of the contact phenomena at grid-rod interface. It is an essential and effective way to evaluate contact forces and provide guidance for simulative bench fretting-impact tests.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 355-361 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Progress in Nuclear Energy |
| Volume | 91 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2016 |
Funding
This research was supported by the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors ( http://www.casl.gov ), an Energy Innovation Hub ( http://www.energy.gov/hubs ) for Modeling and Simulation of Nuclear Reactors, U.S. Department of Energy . The authors would like to thank Dr. Austin Shaw for providing electronic scanned surface profile of spacer grid; and Edgar Lara-Curzio for reviewing this article.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors | |
| Energy Innovation Hub | |
| Modeling and Simulation of Nuclear Reactors | |
| U.S. Department of Energy |
Keywords
- Flow-induced impact
- Grid-to-rod dynamic contact
- PWR