Abstract
This paper describes verification of APR1400 reactor vessel by applying the system engineering approach, in which the design re-engineering method is used to check the design parameters of APR1400 RV (reactor vessel). The RV is classified as safety class 1 and therefore must adhere strictly to the rules of ASME BPVC section III, subsection NB and seismic category I. This study explores designing the RV by following the ASME guidelines and making a comparative study with the current design. To meet this objective we apply system engineering methodologies to structure the process and allow for verification and validation of the major RV design parameters such as thickness of RV. The structural thicknesses of various part of RV are determined as well as reinforcements on the RV major nozzles. A 3D virtual reality model was created based on the design parameters using CATIA V5 and animation using Dassault Composer V2016. A comparison of re-engineered ARP1400 RV and standard APR1400 RV was done to show which design parameters were taken more conservative approach.