• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.59-63
• /
• 2012

The spacer grid is one of the main structural components in a fuel assembly. It supports fuel rods, guides cooling water and maintains geometry from external impact load and cyclic stress by the vibration of nuclear fuel rod, it is necessary to have sufficient strength against dynamic external load and fatigue strength. In this study, the mechanical properties and fatigue characteristics of laser beam welded zircaloy thin sheet are examined. The material used in this study is a zirconium alloy with 0.66 mm of thickness. The fatigue strength under cyclic load was evaluated at stress ratio R=0.1. S-N curves are presented with statistical testing method recommend by JSME- S002 and compared with S-N curves at R.T. and $315^{\circ}C$. As a result of the experimental approach, the design guide of fatigue strength is proposed and the results obtained from this study are expected to be useful data for spacer gird design.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
• /
• v.16 no.2 s.107
• /
• pp.163-168
• /
• 2006

The PWR Nuclear Fuel assembly consists of more than 250 fuel rods that are supported by leaf springs in the cells of more than 10 Spacer Grids (SG) along the rod length. Since it is not easy to conduct mechanical tests on a full-scale model basis, the small-scaled rod bundle $(5\times5)$ which is called partial fuel assembly is generally used for various performance tests during the development stage. As one of the small-scaled tests, a flow test should be carried out in order to verify the performance of the spacer grid to obtain the Flow-Induced Vibration (FIV) characteristics of the scaled fuel assembly over the specified flow range. A vibration test should be also performed to obtain the modal parameters of the assembly prior to the flow test. In this study, we want to develop the estimation procedure of the damping ratio for the scaled test assembly. For the damping factor of the partial fuel assembly and the grid cage at the first vibration mode, as one of the vibration tests, a so-called pluck testing has been performed in air as a preliminary test prior to in-flow damping measurement test. Logarithmic decrement method is used for calculation of the damping ratio. Estimated damping ratio of the partial fuel assembly is about $0.7\%$ with reasonable error of $2\%$ for the previous results. Nonlinear behavior of the partial fuel assembly might be stem mainly from the rod-grid support configuration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 2005.11a
• /
• pp.503-506
• /
• 2005

The PWR Nuclear Fuel assembly consists of more than 250 fuel rods that are supported by leaf springs in the cells of more than 10 Spacer Grids (SG) along the rod length. Since it is not easy to conduct mechanical tests on a full-scale model basis, the small-scaled rod bundle (5$\times$5) is generally used for various performance tests during the development stage. As one of the small-scaled tests, a flow test should be carried out in order to verify the performance of the spacer grid like the coolant mixing performance and to obtain the Flow-Induced Vibration (FIV) characteristics of the rod bundle over the specified flow range. A vibration test should be also performed to obtain the modal parameters of the bundle prior to the flow test. In this study, we want to develop the estimation procedure of the damping ratio for the small scaled test bundle. For the damping factor of the rod bundle and the grid case at the first vibration mode, as one of the vibration tests, a so-called pluck testing has been performed in air as a preliminary test prior to in-flow damping measurement test. Logarithmic decrement method is used for calculation of the damping ratio. Estimated damping ratio of the rod bundle is about 0.7% with reasonable error of 2% for the previous results. Nonlinear behavior of the rod bundle might be stem mainly Iron the rod-grid support configuration.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.347-354
• /
• 2009

Welding is required for a connection between two different components in the nuclear fuel of a pressurized water reactor. This work relies on a mechanical experiment and analytic results to investigate the structural integrity of nuclear fuel in a situation where some components are not welded to each other. A series of lateral vibration tests are performed in a test facility, and the test structures are examined in terms of dynamic behavior. In the tests, the displacement signal at every grid structure that sustains fuel rods is measured and processed to identify the dynamic properties. The fluid-elastic stability of the structure is also analyzed to evaluate susceptibility to a cross flow with an assumed conservative cross flow distribution. The test and analysis results confirm that the structural integrity can be maintained even in the absence of some welding connections.

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.8-13
• /
• 2006

Sliding wear tests have been performed to evaluate the effect of normal load decrease on the wear depth of nuclear fuel rods in room temperature air. The objectives of this study are to quantitatively evaluate the supporting ability of spacer grid springs, to estimate the wear depth by using the contacting force decrease and to compare the wear behavior with increasing test cycles (up to $10^7$) at each spring condition. The result showed that the contacting load decrease depends on the spring shape and the applied slip amplitude. The estimated wear depth is smaller when compared with measured wear depth. Based on the test results, the wear mechanism, the role of wear debris layer and the spring shape effect were discussed.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
• /
• 2000.05a
• /
• pp.431-438
• /
• 2000

In recent years. the destructive force acting on the ballasted track is on the increase with the speed-up of trains and the number of trains, requiring more labor and expenditure to maintain the track in goof condition. Slab track has been developed to decrease the track maintenance work on earthworks. One type of slab track Rheda has Prefabricated track grid, consisting of rails. Prestressed concrete sleepers and reinforcement rods are aligned into position. and then concrete is then placed to integrate the sleepers into a reinforced concrete track slab. In this paper, a new analysis model for the system analysis of the slab track is presented. Then the analysis results are compared with requirements for slab track.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.53-62
• /
• 2017

The forced convection heat transfer performance of a twist-vane spacer grid for a dual-cooled annular fuel assembly was examined experimentally. The twist-vane spacer grid was uniquely designed to enhance mixing inside subchannels and mixing between adjacent subchannels. For testing, a $4{\times}4$ square-arrayed rod bundle with narrow gaps between rods was prepared as the dual-cooled annular fuel assembly to be simulated. The pitch-to-rod diameter ratio of simulated dual-cooled annular fuel assembly was 1.08. The experiments were performed under the following conditions: axial bulk velocity, 1.5 m/s and heat flux, $26kW/m^2$. With regard to the circumferential temperature distribution, the lowest rod-wall temperatures upstream and downstream were measured at the subchannel center and the position toward the tip of twist-vane, respectively. With regard to the axial temperature distribution, behind the twist-vane spacer grid, the rod-wall temperature decreased drastically, and the Nusselt number was enhanced by up to 56 %. The present measured data indicate that the twist-vane spacer grid can effectively improve the forced convection heat transfer in the dual-cooled annular fuel assembly with narrow gaps.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 1997.10a
• /
• pp.177-183
• /
• 1997

The fuel rod for PWR is supported by the spring of the sapcer grid to maintain its axial location and lateral space between fuel rods to get proper functions during the residence in the reactor. The long exposure duration makes the spring to be relax and loss the spring force that results in a fuel rod rattling which may cause fuel rod failure. Here considering the spring behaviour as a function of burnup the reaction forces of the springs are calculated by the finite element program developed herein to evaluate the integrity of the fuel rod from fretting. The results are compared with previous data and ANSYS for the validation of the program and procedures.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.36 no.7
• /
• pp.689-695
• /
• 2012

The friction factor in a rod bundle and the loss coefficient at a spacer grid were examined. As a test section, 25 smooth rods, 9.5 mm in diameter and 2000 mm in length, were prepared and installed in a $5{\times}5$ square array in a square channel. In this case, the P/D (Pitch-to-Diameter ratio) was 1.35. In this work, plain (i.e., no mixing vanes), split-vane, and hybrid-vane spacer grids were tested. In a bare rod bundle (i.e., no spacer grid), the measured friction factors were in good agreement with the previous correlations. Among the spacer grids tested, the hybrid-vane spacer grid presented the largest friction factor in the rod bundle and loss coefficient. This may be because of the flow pattern change induced by large relative plugging of the flow cross section and mixing vane geometry. At Re=$5{\times}10^5$, the predicted loss coefficients of plain, splitvane, and hybrid-vane spacer grids were approximately 0.79, 0.80, and 0.88, respectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.3
• /
• pp.860-866
• /
• 2022

An accurate prediction of the pressure drop along the flow paths is crucial in the design of advanced passive systems cooled by heavy liquid metal coolants. To date, a generic pressure drop correlation over spacer grids by Rehme has been applied extensively, which was obtained from substantial experimental data with multiple types of components. However, a few experimental studies have reported that the correlation may give large discrepancies. To provide a more reliable correlation for ring-type spacer grids, the current numerical study aims at figuring out the most critical factor among four hypothetical parameters, namely the flow area blockage ratio, number of fuel rods, type of fluid, and thickness of the spacer grid in the flow direction. Through a set of computational fluid dynamics simulations, we observed that the flow area blockage ratio dominantly influences the pressure loss characteristics, and thus its dependence should be more emphasized, whereas the other parameters have little impact. Hence, we suggest a new correlation for the drag coefficient as C_B = C_ν,m/ε^2.7, where C_ν,m is formulated by a nonlinear fit of simulation data such that C_ν,m = -11.33 ln(0.02 ln(Re_b)).