• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.37 no.9
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• pp.1127-1132
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• 2013

The failure of reactor internals may have a significant effect on the safe operation and shutdown of a reactor. Various agings related to neutron irradiation occur or can potentially occur in the reactor internals owing to high neutron irradiation levels. Austenitic stainless steel, one of the principal materials constituting the reactor internals, shows different mechanical material behaviors such as tensile/creep properties and fracture toughness with neutron irradiation levels. This variation should be considered when the structural integrity of the reactor internals against agings during the design lifetime or continued operation period is evaluated. In this study, user subroutine programs considering the variation of mechanical material behaviors with neutron irradiation levels were developed. The programs were validated by testing them for various conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05b
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• pp.291-296
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• 1998

노내에서 지지격자 스프링의 잔류 탄성변위는 시간(연소도)에 따라 변하게 된다. 이는 격자판의 중성자 조사에 의한 길이방향의 성장으로 지지격자 셀 크기의 증가와 피복관의 크리프에 의한 직경의 감소 및 중성자 조사에 의한 지지격자 스프링력의 이완으로 인한 것이다. 만일 지지격자 스프링의 거동이 변하여 연료봉을 탄성적으로 지지하지 못할 경우 이것은 연료봉의 유체에 의한 진동을 가속시키게 되며, 연료봉과 지지격자 스프링이나 딤플간의 반복적인 고주기의 충격하중은 연료봉의 지지부와 봉간(grid-to-rod)의 프레팅 마모의 원인이 될 수 있다. 따라서 시간에 따라 변하는 변수들의 영향을 고려한 지지격자 스프링의 잔류 탄성변위를 예측할 수 있는 방법론을 정립하여 새로운 지지격자체의 개발시 건전한 연료봉의 지지거동을 평가할 수 있는 도구로 활용하고자 하였다.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2024

Research reactors are operated under ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure, which is much less severe conditions compared to those in typical nuclear power plants. Due to the high temperature, heat resistant materials such as austenite stainless steel should be used for the reactors in typical nuclear power plants. Whereas, as the effect of temperature is low for research reactors, materials with high resistance to neutron irradiation, such as zircaloy and beryllium, are used. Therefore, these conditions should be considered when performing integrity assessment for research reactors. In this study, a computational technique through finite element (FE) analysis was developed considering the operating conditions and materials of research reactor when conducting integrity assessment. Neutron irradiation analysis techniques using thermal expansion analysis were proposed to consider neutron irradiation growth and swelling in zirconium alloys and beryllium. A user subroutine program that can calculate the strain rate induced by neutron irradiation creep was developed for use in the commercial analysis program Abaqus. To validate the proposed technique and the user subroutine, FE analysis results were compared with hand-calculation results, and showed good agreement. Consequently, developed technique and user subroutine are suitable for evaluating structural integrity of research reactors.