• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.1175-1183
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• 2010

A spacer grid assembly is one of the most important structural components in a Light Water Reactor(LWR) nuclear fuel assembly. In the case of the Zircaloy spacer grid assembly, the primary design consideration is to ensure that lateral dynamic crush strength of the spacer grid assembly is sufficient to resist design basis loads and thereby prevent seismic accidents, without a significant increase in the hydraulic head loss for the reactor coolant in the reactor core. In this study, factors affecting the lateral dynamic crush strength of a spacer grid assembly were analyzed by performing lateral dynamic crush tests and finite element analyses. Further, an effective and economical method to enhance the lateral dynamic crush strength of the spacer grid assembly is proposed.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.305-308
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• 2007

The spacer grid assembly is one of the main structural components of the nuclear fuel assembly of a PWR. The spacer grid assembly supports and aligns the fuel rods, guides the fuel assemblies past each other during handling and, if needed, sustains lateral seismic loads. The ability of the spacer grid assembly to resist the lateral loads is usually characterized in terms of its dynamic and static crush strengths, which are acquired from tests. In this study, a finite element analysis on the dynamic crush strength of spacer grid assembly specimens is carried out and compared with test results.