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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2022.03.018

Study on failure mechanism of line contact structures of nuclear graphite  

Jia, Shigang (School of Aerospace Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology)
Yi, Yanan (Department of Engineering Mechanics, Shanghai Jiaotong University)
Wang, Lu (School of Aerospace Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology)
Liu, Guangyan (School of Aerospace Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology)
Ma, Qinwei (School of Aerospace Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology)
Sun, Libin (Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University)
Shi, Li (Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University)
Ma, Shaopeng (School of Aerospace Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology)
Publication Information
Nuclear Engineering and Technology / v.54, no.8, 2022 , pp. 2989-2998 More about this Journal
Abstract
Line contact structures, such as the contact between graphite brick and graphite tenon, widely exist in high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. Due to the stress concentration effect, the line contact area is one of the dangerous positions prone to failure in the nuclear reactor core. In this paper, the failure mechanism of line contact structures composed of IG11 nuclear graphite column and brick were investigated by means of experiment and finite element simulation. It was found that the failure process mainly includes three stages: firstly, the damage accumulation in nuclear graphite material led to the characteristic yielding of the line contact structure, but no macroscopic failure can be observed at this stage; secondly, the stresses near the contact area met Mohr failure criterion, and a crack initiated and propagated laterally in the contact zone, that is, local macroscopic failure occurred at this stage; finally, a second crack initiated in the contact area and developed in to a Y-shape, resulting in the final failure of the structure. This study lays a foundation for the structural design and safety assessment of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors.
Keywords
Nuclear graphite; Line contact structure; Damage; Failure mechanism;
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Times Cited By KSCI : 1  (Citation Analysis)
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