Modelling of fully-flexible fuel bundles

A new reduced order model to represent the creep induced fuel assembly bow in PWR cores

“…They rely on beam or pipe elements for the structures and on discrete elements to represent the connections, including the multiple contacts. These relatively economical mechanical models dedicated to quasi-static evolution (Horváth and Dressel, 2013;Lamorte et al, 2021;Wanninger et al, 2018) and those more oriented for dynamic simulation (Elbanhawy et al, 2021;Hassan and Rogers, 2005;Ricciardi, 2017) now make it possible to perform calculations coupling hydraulics and mechanics. The main phenomena involved in the mechanical deformation of assemblies are often well represented.…”