Mechanical Fatigue Testing of High Burnup Fuel for Transportation Applications

Wang, Jy-An John; Wang, Hong

doi:10.2172/1212346

Cited by 9 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Wang et al [30,31] describes the conditions and implications of the various parameters used within the CIRFT. For the reader's convenience, a short description of the test is provided here.…”

Section: Cirft Testing (De05)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sister Rod Destructive Test Results (FY19)

Montgomery

Morris

Ilgner

et al. 2019

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This report documents work performed under the Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition, Spent Fuel and Waste Science and Technology program for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE). This work was performed to fulfill Level 2 Milestone M2SF-19ORO010201026 within work package SF-19OR01020102 and is an update to the work reported in M2SF-19OR010201028 and M3SF-19OR010201027. The document incorporates comments received with respect to the previous reports and incorporates additional test results. As a part of the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) High Burnup Spent Fuel Data Project, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is performing destructive examinations (DEs) of high burnup (HBU) (>45 gigawatt days per metric ton uranium) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) rods from the North Anna Nuclear Power Station operated by Dominion Energy. The SNF rods, called the "sister rods," are all HBU and include four different kinds of fuel rod cladding: standard Zircaloy-4 (Zirc-4), low-tin Zircaloy-4 (LT Zirc-4), ZIRLO ® , and M5 ®. The DEs are being conducted to obtain a baseline of the HBU rod's condition prior to dry storage and are focused on understanding overall SNF rod strength and durability. Both composite fuel and empty cladding will be tested to derive material properties. While the data generated can be used for multiple purposes, a primary goal for obtaining the post-irradiation examination data and the associated measured mechanical properties is to support SNF dry storage licensing and relicensing activities by (1) addressing identified knowledge gaps and (2) enhancing the technical basis for post-storage transportation, handling, and consolidation activities. This report documents the status of the ORNL Phase I DEs of 8 sister rods and outlines the DE tasks performed and the data collected to date, as guided by the sister rod test plans. The DEs are performed using a phased approach, and the Phase 1 DEs being performed at ORNL include: • full-length rod heat treatments (FHT) of 3 selected sister rods to examine the effects of temperatures reached during dry storage preparation, Sister Rod Destructive Examinations

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Section: Cirft Testing (De05)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sister Rod Destructive Test Results (FY19)

Montgomery

Morris

Ilgner

et al. 2019

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“…This paper provides the FEA methodology used to evaluate the effects of pellet-pellet and pellet-clad interactions. Figure 2 shows CIRFT testing system with horizontal U-frame test setup [2][3][4]. Push-pull forces of linear motors translated to bending moment on the fuel rod sample.…”

Section: Pellet Dish Fuel-clad Interfacementioning

confidence: 99%

“…ABAQUS was used for a structural analysis and interfacial bonding evaluation of fuel rods with HBR pellets. The rods were tested in a hot-cell environment in the CIRFT developed by ORNL [2][3][4]. To validate the simulation results, the same fuel rod materials were used in the hot-cell tests and the FEA.…”

Section: Interface Bonding Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using flexural rigidity as an index, interface bonding efficiency (IBE) can be defined as a parameter to evaluate the interface bonding condition and deficiency. The flexural rigidity of the perfect bond condition was used as baseline, and IBE was defined as, IBE=EI of interface debonded / EI of perfect bond (4) Thus IBE for the perfect bond condition was defined as 100% in Table 2. The flexural rigidity was 77 N•m 2 when the pellets were perfectly bonded with epoxy.…”

Section: Interface Bonding Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed the cyclic integrated reversible-bending fatigue tester (CIRFT) to successfully demonstrate controllable fatigue fracturing of HBU SNF in a normal vibration mode [2][3][4]. CIRFT enables examination of the underlying mechanisms of the dynamic performance of the SNF system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The impact of interface bonding efficiency on high-burnup spent nuclear fuel dynamic performance

Jiang

Wang

2016

Nuclear Engineering and Design

Self Cite

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Finite element analysis (FEA) was used to investigate the impact of interfacial bonding efficiency at pellet-pellet and pellet-clad interfaces of high-burnup (HBU) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) on system dynamic performance. Bending moments M were applied to FEA model to evaluate the system responses. From bending curvature, , flexural rigidity EI can be estimated as EI = M/. The FEA simulation results were benchmarked with experimental results from cyclic integrated reversal bending fatigue test (CIRFT) of HBR fuel rods. The consequence of interface debonding between fuel pellets and cladding is a redistribution of the loads carried by the fuel pellets to the clad, which results in a reduction in composite rod system flexural rigidity. Therefore, the interface bonding efficiency at the pellet-pellet and pellet-clad interfaces can significantly dictate the SNF system dynamic performance. With the consideration of interface bonding efficiency, the HBU SNF fuel property was estimated with CIRFT test data.

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Experimental Study on Surrogate Nuclear Fuel Rods Under Reversed Cyclic Bending

Wang

2017

Fatigue and Fracture Test Planning, Test Data Acquisitions and Analysis

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The mechanical behavior of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) rods under reversed cyclic bending or bending fatigue must be understood to evaluate their vibration integrity in a transportation environment. This is especially important for high-burnup fuels (>45 GWd/MTU), which have the potential for increased structural damage. It has been demonstrated that the bending fatigue of SNF rods can be effectively studied using surrogate rods. In this investigation, surrogate rods made of stainless steel 304 cladding and aluminum oxide pellets were tested under load or moment control at a variety of amplitude levels at 5 Hz using the Cyclic Integrated Reversible-Bending Fatigue Tester developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The behavior of the rods was further characterized using flexural rigidity and hysteresis data, and fractography was performed on the failed rods. The proposed surrogate rods captured many of the characteristics of deformation and failure mode observed in SNF, including the linear to nonlinear deformation transition and large residual curvature in static tests, pellet pellet interface and pellet cladding mechanical interaction, failure mechanisms, and large variations in the initial structural condition. Rod degradation was measured and characterized by measuring the flexural rigidity; the degradation of the rigidity depended on both the moment amplitude applied and the initial structural condition of the rods. It was also shown that a cracking initiation site can be located on the internal surface or the external surface of cladding. Finally, fatigue damage to the bending rods can be described in terms of flexural rigidity, and the fatigue life of rods can be predicted once damage model parameters are properly evaluated. The developed experimental approach, test protocol, and analysis method can be used to study the vibration integrity of SNF rods in the future.

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Mechanical Fatigue Testing of High Burnup Fuel for Transportation Applications

Cited by 9 publications

References 5 publications

Sister Rod Destructive Test Results (FY19)

Sister Rod Destructive Test Results (FY19)

The impact of interface bonding efficiency on high-burnup spent nuclear fuel dynamic performance

Experimental Study on Surrogate Nuclear Fuel Rods Under Reversed Cyclic Bending

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