Abstract
Wear failure of the in-core flux thimble is an important problem in the neutron flux measurement system, which threatens the safety of the nuclear power plant. To figure out the wear mechanism of the thimble, a wear tester was designed and manufactured to simulate the wear process of the in-core flux thimble. Outer guide tubes with different R angles were used to abrade the thimbles. The designed tester can well simulate the wear process in the real power plant. R angle of the outer guide tube played important role in the wear behavior of the in-core flux thimbles.
Highlights
Nowadays safety of the nuclear power plant becomes more and more important along a big number of nuclear power plants go into operation
Almost all nuclear power plants in China were concerned by this problem seriously [2,3,4]
Impact and abrasion between the thimbles and the guide tubes is a very unique wear type, which consists of longitudinal shift and circular movement
Summary
Nowadays safety of the nuclear power plant becomes more and more important along a big number of nuclear power plants go into operation. Almost all nuclear power plants in China were concerned by this problem seriously [2,3,4]. This problem has been noticed to be quite important, no study was focused on it till now. In order to characterize the phenomenon and find a way to reduce or suppress wear of the thimbles, a dedicated device have been designed and developed, which can simulate the relative movement between the thimbles and guide tubes. The most serious wear was found to occur at the end of the outer guide tube with sharp shape. One end of the outer guide tubes was manufactured as different R angles. These guide tubes were used to contact the thimbles by using the self-made device mentioned above
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