High burn-up spent nuclear fuel vibration integrity study - 15134
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (United States)
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed the cyclic integrated reversible-bending fatigue tester (CIRFT) approach to successfully demonstrate the controllable fatigue fracture of high burnup (HBU) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in a normal vibration mode. CIRFT enables examination of the underlying mechanisms of SNF system dynamic performance. Due to the inhomogeneous composite structure of the SNF system, the detailed mechanisms of pellet-pellet and pellet-clad interactions and the stress concentration effects at the pellet-pellet interface cannot be readily obtained from a CIRFT system measurement. Therefore, finite element analyses (FEAs) are being used to complement the experimental work by estimating values of local stresses and strains from the measured global moment-curvature. These results and their implications will be used for further investigation. Major findings of CIRFT on the HBU SNF are as follows: - The degree of bonding between pellets, as well as the bonding between pellets and clad in the SNF system plays an important role in the vibration performance of SNF. - Fuel structure contributes to SNF system stiffness. - There are significant variations in stress and curvature of SNF systems during vibration cycles resulting from segment pellet and clad interactions. - SNF failure initiates at the pellet-pellet interface region and appears to be spontaneous. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22822693
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US--19-WM-15134
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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