Development of a computer program to predict structural integrity against fretting wear of steam generator tubes: PIAT (program for integrity assessment of steam generator tubes)

Abstract

Flow induced vibration of steam generator tubes potentially causes excessive fretting wear at the supports such as anti-vibration bars and tube support plates. For a reliable design of tubes against the flow-induced vibration related failure, the prediction of vibration and wear of tubes should be performed through complicated steps including the thermal-hydraulic analysis, dynamic modal analysis, evaluation of fluid-elastic instability, prediction of turbulence-induced vibration and wear depth for thousands of tubes. However, entire tubes cannot be evaluated within a limited time of design engineering by the conventional analysis methodology.In this paper, we describe an efficient computer program to assess the structural integrity of steam generator tubes against the flow-induced vibration related failure in a very systematic way. The program contains all the necessary thermal-hydraulic database of typical steam generators. It has a very special function to perform modal analysis for all thousands of tubes of a steam generator much faster than the conventional method. The program also performs fluid-elastic instability analysis and calculates the vibrational response to the turbulent flow excitation, and then can predict the wear depth for all tubes of a steam generator.Finally, we can generate the wear prediction map for whole tubes so that an efficient and practical steam generator maintenance management program is feasible. The utilization of the developed computer program for the design and maintenance of steam generators can significantly increase the structural integrity of steam generator tubes of a nuclear power plant.