Numerical strategy for dynamic simulation of impacts on SFR fuel pins and experimental validation

T. Catterou (1) , V. Blanc (2) , G. Ricciardi (3) , S. Bourgeois (4) , B. Cochelin (4)

1 CEA-DES (ex-DEN) - CEA-Direction des Energies (ex-Direction de l'Energie Nucléaire)
2 LECIM - Laboratoire d'Etude de Conception et Irradiation Multi-filières
3 LTHC - Laboratoire d'essais de Thermohydraulique et d'Hydromécanique analytique du Coeur et des circuits
4 LMA - Laboratoire de Mécanique et d'Acoustique [Marseille]

Fuel pins are the first containment barriers of a sodium fast reactor, and their integrities have to be preserved during a dynamical load. Pins are included in an assembly with mounting gaps, to allow them to swell during the life cycle of the reactor; so they are subjected to shock and contact at the early ages. A numerical method has been chosen with the aim to determine the dynamical behavior of a large system with a lot of contacts. The validity of the method is confronted for a basic issue to semi-analytical solution. Then, dynamical behavior of an isolated pin has been studied experimentally and numerically, with a non-linear representative contact law. Numerical method is appropriate to assess contact forces caused for pins.

Keywords: finite-element; finite-element.; contact; Dynamic; modal analysis

Domains: Physics [physics]; Nuclear Experiment [nucl-ex]; Physics [physics]; Nuclear Theory [nucl-th]

T. Catterou, V. Blanc, G. Ricciardi, S. Bourgeois, B. Cochelin. Numerical strategy for dynamic simulation of impacts on SFR fuel pins and experimental validation. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 2018, 340, pp.73-85. ⟨10.1016/j.nucengdes.2018.09.021⟩. ⟨cea-02339668⟩