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Title: Gear Test Assembly - Status Report For FY2019

Abstract

The final stages of pre-sodium commissioning were completed for the Gear Test Assembly (GTA) in late 2018 and all the components were moved to building 308 for final preparations for insertion into the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL). The GTA was fully assembled in the experimental test assembly workstation and all supporting electrical and hardware systems were installed on the METL Mezzanine. The GTA was installed in Test Vessel 1 after performing a final systems check, and the vessel and article were raised to operating temperature and held for two weeks to bake-out any moisture present in the components. Test Vessel 1 was filled with sodium and a purification process was completed using the cold trap system. When the sodium was sufficiently clean, Test Vessel 1 was isolated from the rest of METL, and experimental operation of the GTA commenced. The experimental operations consisted of rotating two shafts using Parker servomotors to apply a prototypic torque of a fuel handling mechanism removing and inserting a sodium fast reactor fuel assembly. This removing and inserting motion was repeated until the system seized, indicating component degradation of either the gears or the bearings in the test gearbox. A total of 19,600 cyclesmore » were completed, corresponding to the removal and insertion of 9,800 fuel assemblies. The system was shut down and then prepared for removal. The Flexicask System was successfully used to remove the GTA from Test Vessel 1 while keeping both vessel and article inert during the process. The GTA was installed in the Carbonation System, where the process of slowly reacting the sodium away using moist CO2 has been started. Once the GTA is fully cleaned, it will be disassembled and the gears will undergo the same NDE process performed before testing to quantify the wear that occurred. A report on this, along with the data analysis from the experimental operations will be submitted in late 2019.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
OSTI Identifier:
1565961
Report Number(s):
ANL-ART-178; ANL-METL-19
155460
DOE Contract Number:  
AC02-06CH11357
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
METL; NDE; SFR; Sodium

Citation Formats

Kent, E., Belch, H., Kultgen, D., Weathered, M., and Grandy, C. Gear Test Assembly - Status Report For FY2019. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.2172/1565961.
Kent, E., Belch, H., Kultgen, D., Weathered, M., & Grandy, C. Gear Test Assembly - Status Report For FY2019. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1565961
Kent, E., Belch, H., Kultgen, D., Weathered, M., and Grandy, C. 2019. "Gear Test Assembly - Status Report For FY2019". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1565961. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1565961.
@article{osti_1565961,
title = {Gear Test Assembly - Status Report For FY2019},
author = {Kent, E. and Belch, H. and Kultgen, D. and Weathered, M. and Grandy, C.},
abstractNote = {The final stages of pre-sodium commissioning were completed for the Gear Test Assembly (GTA) in late 2018 and all the components were moved to building 308 for final preparations for insertion into the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL). The GTA was fully assembled in the experimental test assembly workstation and all supporting electrical and hardware systems were installed on the METL Mezzanine. The GTA was installed in Test Vessel 1 after performing a final systems check, and the vessel and article were raised to operating temperature and held for two weeks to bake-out any moisture present in the components. Test Vessel 1 was filled with sodium and a purification process was completed using the cold trap system. When the sodium was sufficiently clean, Test Vessel 1 was isolated from the rest of METL, and experimental operation of the GTA commenced. The experimental operations consisted of rotating two shafts using Parker servomotors to apply a prototypic torque of a fuel handling mechanism removing and inserting a sodium fast reactor fuel assembly. This removing and inserting motion was repeated until the system seized, indicating component degradation of either the gears or the bearings in the test gearbox. A total of 19,600 cycles were completed, corresponding to the removal and insertion of 9,800 fuel assemblies. The system was shut down and then prepared for removal. The Flexicask System was successfully used to remove the GTA from Test Vessel 1 while keeping both vessel and article inert during the process. The GTA was installed in the Carbonation System, where the process of slowly reacting the sodium away using moist CO2 has been started. Once the GTA is fully cleaned, it will be disassembled and the gears will undergo the same NDE process performed before testing to quantify the wear that occurred. A report on this, along with the data analysis from the experimental operations will be submitted in late 2019.},
doi = {10.2172/1565961},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1565961}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}