• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.73-82
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• 2001

Pressurized water reactor(PWR) fuel rods. which are continuously supported by a spring system called a spacer grid(SG), are exposed to reactor coolant at a flow velocity of up to 6-8 m/s. It is known that the vibration of 3 fuel rod is generated by the coolant flow, a so-called flow-induced-vibration(FIV), and the relative motion induced by the FIV between the fuel rod and the SG can wear away the surface of the fuel rod, which occasionally leads to its fretting failure. It is, therefore, important to understand the vibration characteristics of the fuel rod and reflect that in its design. In this paper, vibration analyses of the fuel rod with two different SGs were performed using both analytical and experimental methods. Updating of the finite element(FE) model using the measured data was performed in order to enhance confidence in the FE model of fuel rods supported by an SG. It was found that the modal parameters are very sensitive to the spring constant of the SG.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.922-929
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• 2019

This paper presents the drop performance test of the control rod assembly which is one of the main components strongly related to the safety of the prototype generation IV sodium-cooled fast reactor. To investigate the drop performance, a real-sized control rod assembly that was recently modified based on the drop analysis results was newly fabricated, and several free drop tests under different flow rate conditions were carried out. Then the results were compared with those obtained from the previous tests conducted on the conceptually designed control rod assembly to demonstrate the improvement in performance. Moreover, the drop performance tests under several types and magnitudes of seismic loadings were also conducted to investigate the effect of the seismic loading on the drop performance of the modified control rod assembly. The results showed that the effects of the type and magnitude of the seismic loading on the drop performance of the modified control rod assembly were not significant. Also, the drop time requirement was successfully satisfied, even under the seismic loading conditions.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.1320-1329
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• 1990

A static performance tester for a torque rod assembly was developed to evaluate the three characteristics of the rod rubber bushing : radial spring characteristic, thrust spring characteristic, and rotational torque characteristic. Among the various schemes considered in the conceptual design stage, the final versatile type was determined to perform three different tests in one machine. The performance testing machine carried out radial spring test, thrust spring test, and torque test of the torque rod assembly. Static performance of the torque rod assembly was evaluated with the tester developed and fatigue strength of the assembly was also tested with the servo-hydraulic structural fatigue testing machine. The life of the component was found to be related with the rubber quality and adhesionability between the rubber and the steel rod. The optimum rubber hardness was experimentally found by changing the chemical compositions of rubber, and the adhesion was improved by optimizing the shape of the outer section of a the rubber, this study ensured the development of a reliable torque rod assembly.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.245-251
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• 2001

A fretting wear tester is developed for experimental study on the fuel fretting problem of light water reactor. The feature of the developed tester is it can simulate the existence of gap between spring and fuel rod as well as different contacting force including the just-contact condition (0 N on the contact). Used are a servo-motor, an eccentric cylinder and lever mechanism for driving system. A spacer grid cell is constituted with four strap segments (each segment has a spring). This fretting wear tester can also be used as a fatigue tester of a spacer grid spring with the frequency of more than 10 Hz. It is required to simulate the frequency of the vibrating fuel rod due to flow-induced vibration in a reactor. In fretting wear test, up to two span-length of a fuel cladding tube can be accommodated. A specimen of cladding tube of one span-length is specially designed, which can be extended for two-span test. For .fatigue test, a device for clamping the spring fixture is installed additionally, Presently, the tester is designed for the condition of air environment and room temperature. The variation of the reciprocal distance is measured to check the stability of input force, which will be exerted to the cladding (for fretting wear. test) and the spring (for fatigue test) specimen.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.163-169
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• 2006

Fretting is a kind of surface degradation mechanism observed in mechanical components and structures. The fretting damage decreases into 50-70% of the plain fatigue strength. The connecting rod for automobile has been used in special environments and various loading conditions. Failure of connecting rod in automotive engine may cause catastrophic situation. In this study, we investigated the fatigue characteristic of connecting rod material for an automobile. Fatigue life is defined as the number of cyclic stress to failure by regular cyclic stress. Fatigue life of C70S6 specimen was obtained from 134,000 to 147,000 cycles. Fatigue limit showed 432MPa by normal fatigue test. The other hands, it was 96MPa in the case of fretting fatigue test. It was extremely lower than that of a normal fatigue test. From observation of fracture surface, it was confirmed that the fatigue crack was initiated at the boundary of a specimen and bridge pad.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.29-33
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• 1996

The eddy current test(ECT) probe of differential encircling coil type was designed and fabricated, and the optimum condition of ECT was derived for the examination of the irradiated fuel rod. The correlation between ECT test frequency and phase & amplitude was derived by performing the test of the standard rig that includes inner notches, outer notches and through-holes. The defect of through-hole was predicted by ECT at the G33-N2 fuel rod irradiated in the Kori-1 nuclear power reactor. The metallographic examination on the G33-N2 fuel rod was Performed at the defect location predicted by ECT. The result of metallographic examination for the G33-N2 fuel rod was in good agreement with that of ECT. This proves that the evaluation for integrity of irradiated fuel rod by ECT is reliable.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.159-172
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• 2022

To improve the accuracy of the standard penetration test (SPT) results, smart measurement system, which considers the energy transfer ratio into the sampler (ETR_Sampler), is required. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of joints and rod length on the transferred energy into the sampler. The energy transfer ratios into the rod head (ETR_Head) and ETR_Sampler, and the energy ratio from the head to the sampler (ER_HS) were obtained using energy modules, which were installed at the rod head and above the SPT sampler. Linear regression analyses are conducted to correlate the ER_HS with the number of joints, rod length, and SPT N-values. In addition, the dynamic resistances are calculated using both transferred energies into the rod head and into the sampler, and are compared with the corrected cone tip resistance measured from the cone penetration test (CPT). While the ETR_Head are generally constant, but the ETR_Sampler and ER_HS gradually decrease along the depth or the number of joints, except at certain depths with high SPT N-values. Thus, the ER_HS can be estimated using the number of joints, rod length, and SPT N-values. The dynamic resistance evaluated by E_Sampler produces a better correlation with the corrected cone tip resistance than that by E_Head. This study suggests that transferred energy into the SPT sampler may be effectively used for more accurate subsurface characterization.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.354-357
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• 2009

The effect of texture of an extruded OFHC Cu rod on its sliding wear has been explored. Disk specimens with three different orientations were machined from the Cu rod for the wear test; surfaces of the disk were perpendicular ($0^{\circ}$), inclined with a specific angle ($45^{\circ}$), and parallel ($90^{\circ}$) to the extrusion axis of the rod. The texture was analyzed using an X-ray goniometer by measuring {111}, {200}, and {220} pole figures of each specimen. The analyzed texture was correlated with wear-test results of the Cu specimen. Dry sliding wear tests were performed at room temperature using a pin-on-disk wear tester against an Al2O3 ball. Applied load, sliding distance, sliding speed were fixed as 20 N, 200 m, and 0.5 m/sec, respectively. The $45^{\circ}$-inclined (to the extrusion axis) disk specimen showed the lowest wear resistance with the least data scatters. It has been found that distribution of cube texture strongly influences wear rate of the extruded Cu rod.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.1859-1863
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• 2007

A new type of a fretting wear tester has been designed and developed in order to simulate the actual vibration behavior of a nuclear fuel rod for springs/dimples in room temperature. When considering the actual contact condition between fuel rod and spring/dimple, if fretting wear progress due to the flow-induced vibration (FIV) under a specific normal load exerted on the fuel rod by the elastic deformation of the spring, the contacting force between the fuel rod and dimple that were located in the opposite side should be decreased. Consequently, the evaluation of developed spacer grids against fretting wear damage should be performed with the results of a cell unit experiments because the contacting force is one of the most important variables that influence to the fretting wear mechanism. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new type of fretting test rig in order to simulate the actual contact condition. In this paper, the development procedure of a new fretting wear tester and its performance were discussed in detail.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.273-286
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• 1998

As there has arisen a concern that failure of the high burnup fuel under the reactivity-insertion accident(RIA) may occur at the energy lower than the expected, fuel behavior under the rod ejection accident in a typical Westinghouse-designed 950 MWe PWR was analyzed by using the three dimensional nodal transient neutronics code, PANBOX2 and the transient fuel rod performance analysis code, FRAP-T6. Fuel failure criteria versus the burnup was conservatively derived taking into account available test data and the possible fuel failure mechanisms. The high burnup and longer cycle length fuel loading scheme of a peak rod turnup of 68 MWD/kgU was selected for the analysis. Except three dimensional core neutronics calculation, the analysis used the same core conditions and assumptions as the conventional zero dimensional analysis. Results of three dimensional analysis showed that the peak fuel enthalpy during the rod ejection accident is less than one third of that calculated by the conventional zero dimensional analysis methodology and the fraction of fuel failure in the core is less than 4 %. Therefore, it can be said that the current design limit of less than 10 percent fuel failure and maintaining the core coolable geometry would be adequately satisfied under the rod ejection accident, even though the conservative fuel failure criteria derived from the test data are applied.