TREAT MK III Loop Thermoelastoplastic Stress Analysis for the L03 Experiment

Abstract

The STRAW code was used to analyze the static response of a TREAT MK III loop subjected to thermal and mechanical loadings arising from an accident situation for the purpose of determining the defiections and stresses. This analysis provides safety support for the L03 reactivity accident study. The analysis was subdivided into two tasks: (1) an analysis of a flow blockage accident (Cases A and B), where all the energy is assumed deposited in the test leg, resulting in a temperature increase from 530°F to 1720°F, with a small internal pressure throughout the loop and (2) an analysis of a second flow blockage accident (Cases C and D), where again, all the energy is assumed to he deposited in the test leg, resulting in a temperature rise from 530°F to 1845°F, with a small internal pressure throughout the loop. The purpose of these two tasks was to determine if loop failure can occur with the thermal differential across the pump and test legs. Also of interest is whether an undesirable amount of loop lateral deflection will be caused by the thermal differential. A two dimensional analysis of the TREAT MK III loop was performed. The analysis accounted for material nonlinearities, both as a function of temperature and stress, and geometric nonlinearities arising from large deflections. Straight beam elements with annular cross sections were used to model the loop. The analyses show that the maximum strains are less than 21% of their failure strains for all subcases of Cases A and B. For all subcases of cases C and D, the maximum strains are less than 53% of their failure strains. The failure strain is 27.9% for the material at 530°F, 38.1% at 1720°F and 17.8% at 1845°F. Large lateral deflections are observed when the loop is not constrained except at its clamped support--as much as 8.6 inches. However, by accounting for the constraint of the concrete biological shield, the maximum lateral deflection was reduced to less than 0.05 inches at the points of concern.