JAVIER GONZALES MANTECON
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Artigo IPEN-doc 25805 Numerical analysis on stability of nuclear fuel plates with inlet support comb2019 - MANTECON, JAVIER G.; MATTAR NETO, MIGUELMany nuclear research reactors use or are planned with cores containing flat-plate-type fuel elements. One of the problems of this fuel element design is the mechanical stability of the fuel plates. High-velocity coolant flowing through the narrow channels that separate the plates can cause large deflections of these plates leading to local overheating, structural failure or plate collapse. In particular, in real fuel elements and experimental tests, flowinduced deflections at the leading edge and along the length of the plates have been detected. Some authors have indicated that the use of a support comb removes the leading-edge static divergence, but it has been also suggested that, even with the comb, there are significant deflections away from the inlet. In this work, a fluid-structure interaction study is conducted to examine the effectiveness of using an inlet comb on the mechanical stability of fuel plates. The system consists of two fuel plates bounded by three-equal coolant channels. The pressure loadings caused by the fluid flow are calculated using a CFD model and the structural response of the plates and the support comb are determined by means of an FEA model. The two-way fluid-structure interaction method was employed for coupling the fluid and solid solvers. The results presented here show that the static divergence at the inlet end is effectively eliminated with the installation of a support comb. Nevertheless, the main contribution of this work is the detection of deformation of the plates along their length and that it was an increasing function of the fluid velocity in the channels. As a consequence, the flow channels could be constricted or completely closed, thus affecting the safe operation of the nuclear reactor. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first numerical analysis reported in the literature that models the fluid-structure interaction phenomenon of adjacent plates with the support comb located at the midpoint of their inlet end.Tese IPEN-doc 25642 Evaluation of mechanical stability of nuclear fuel plates under axial flow conditions2019 - MANTECON, JAVIER G.Several nuclear research reactors use or are planned with cores containing flat-plate- type fuel elements. The nuclear fuel is contained in parallel plates that are separated by narrow channels through which the fluid flows to remove the heat generated by fission reactions. One of the problems of this fuel element design is the mechanical stability of the fuel plates. High-velocity coolant flowing through the channels can cause large deflections of these plates leading to local overheating, structural failure or plate collapse. As a consequence, the safe operation of the reactor may be affected. In this work, a numerical fluid-structure interaction study was conducted for evaluating the mechanical stability of nuclear fuel plates under axial flow conditions. Five different cases were analyzed. In all cases, the system consisted of two fuel plates bounded by fluid channels but, in case 5, a support comb at the leading edge of the plates was inserted. The pressure loadings caused by the fluid flow were calculated using a Computational Fluid Dynamics model created with ANSYS CFX. The structural response was determined by means of a Finite Element Analysis model generated with ANSYS Mechanical. Both models were coupled using the two-way fluid-structure interaction approach. The results from Case 1 allowed proposing a methodology to predict the critical velocity of the assembly without an inlet support comb. The maximum deflection of the plates was detected at their leading edges. It was detected that, for flow rates in the channels less than a certain value, the maximum deflection increased linearly with the square of the coolant velocity. In contrast, for greater flow rates, a nonlinear behavior was observed. Therefore, that fluid velocity was identified as the critical velocity of the system. Besides, above the critical velocity, an extra deflection peak was observed near the trailing edge of the plates. In cases 2, 3 and 4, the influence of manufacturing deviations and the change of materials properties due to the increment of temperature on the critical velocity was investigated. With these conditions, the critical velocity of the system was found at lower values. Lastly, in Case 5, the effectiveness of using a support comb at the leading edge of the plates was investigated. The results showed that the static divergence at the inlet end is effectively eliminated with the installation of the comb. In addition, the flow-induced deflections along the length of the plates were significantly diminished with the comb.