Abstract

The fuel rods in the Pressurized water reactor are continuously supported by a spring system called a spacer grid which is one of the main structural components for the fuel rod cluster(fuel assembly). The fuel rods vibrate within the reactor due to coolant flow. Since the vibration, which is called flow-induced vibration(FIV) can wear away the surface of the fuel rod, it is important to understand it's vibration characteristics. In this paper, the vibration analyses and the tests for the dummy rods supported by New Doublet(ND) spacer grids are described. A new FE model which reflects the contact area between the rod and ND spacer grid spring is developed to replace the previous one by which a good agreement could not be obtained with the vibration test. The natural frequency and mode shape calculated by both the Previous FE model and the new one are compared with those of experiment for a single-spanned rod supported by two ND spacer grids. The results of the new model showed good agreement with the experiment compared with those of previous model. In addition. the new FE model is applied to the vibration analysis for the dummy rod of 2.189 mm tall continuously supported by five ND spacer grids. It is also obtained that the analysis results of the new FE model well agreed to experiment ones as the single-spanned rod.

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