Abstract
The fluid-elastic instability analysis of the U-tube bundle inside the steam generator is very important not only for detailed design stage of the SG but also for the change of operating condition of the nuclear powerplant. However the calculation procedure for the fluid-elastic instability was so complicated that the consolidated computer program has not been developed until now. In this study, the numerical calculation procedure and the computer program to obtain the stability ratio were developed. The thermal-hydraulic data in the region of secondary side of steam generator was obtained from executing the ATHOS3 code. The distribution of the fluid density can be calculated by using the void fraction, enthalpy, and operating pressure. The effective mass distribution along the U-tube was required to calculate natural frequency and dynamic mode shape using the ANSYS ver. 5.6 code. Finally, stability ratios for selected tubes of the CE type steam generator were computed. We considered the YGN 3.4 nuclear powerplant as the model plant, and stability ratios were investigated at the flow exit region of the U-tube. From our results, stability ratios at the central and the outside region of the tube bundle are much higher than those of other region.