Experimental study of the interaction of ceramic breeder pebble beds with structural materials under thermo-mechanical loads

Status of ceramic breeder pebble bed thermo-mechanics R&D and impact on breeder material mechanical strength

“…The question that arises is whether a void region will be created under thermal-cyclic loading due to the differential rates of expansion and contraction of the pebble bed and structural containing wall. This uncertainty was first addressed in an experimental set-up involving Li 2 TiO 3 pebbles enclosed by two Kovar flanges while sandwiched between two commercial-grade CVD silicon carbide discs [35]. The set-up allows for generating a high stress through large differential in thermal expansion coefficients.…”

IFE Thick Liquid Wall Chamber Dynamics: Governing Mechanisms and Modeling and Experimental Capabilities

“…Although the facility has been mainly operated using only the nontoxic component of the molten salt~LiF!, preliminary runs have demonstrated the possibility of using flibe in the source. 59 The facility has been mainly designed and scaled to simulate the IFE chamber clearing process. For this purpose, the condensation chamber is equipped with sensors that are capable of measuring the pressure at different locations over a wide range that characterize the clearing process.…”

Effect of Pebble Size Distribution and Wall Effect on Inner Packing Structure and Contact Force Distribution in Tritium Breeder Pebble Bed

“…In addition, in numerous previous investigations, most of the attention was focused on the study of the macro-and meso-scale packing structure and contact force distribution of the mono-sized pebble bed [45][46][47][48][49][50][51]. Such as, the average porosity and radial porosity distribution in the mono-sized cylindrical pebble bed various as the increase of the diameter ratio of cylinder to pebble, and the relation between the coordination number and the porosity in bed.…”