Fatigue,Creep And Crack Analyses Of Lead-Bismuth-Cooled Fast Reactor Vessel

With the development of nuclear industry,the U.S.Department of Energy and the international nuclear experts put forward the concept of Generation-IV nuclear reactor systems.Lead-Bismuth-Cooled fast reactor is one of the six most promising advanced reactor systems for Gen-IV.The use of lead-bismuth coolant can improve some economics and safety.Reactor vessel is the key equipment of the whole nuclear power plant.It is one of three radioactive protection barriers.It is very important to ensure the structural integrity and functionality of the reactor vessel.So the seismic analysis of the reactor vessel is an important issue in lead-bismuth-cooled fast reactor design.ANSYS finite element software is used in this paper.This paper focus on the vessel of lead-bismuth cooled reactor CLEAR(China Lead Alloy cooled Reactor),builds up the finite element model.It can calculate the temperature field distribution according to the actual situation,and calculate the stress distribution under thermal stress,gravity,axial load and hydrostatic pressure.The most prone to fatigue failure position of the primary vessel can be reached by the temperature field and stress field.It is located at the bottom support of the vessel.The most prone to creep failure position of the primary vessel is located at the upper cylinder wall.According to the linear cumulative damage rule the creep and fatigue damage analysis and life prediction of the main container can be carried out.In this article,through the analysis and prediction the main reactor vessel is in safety period within the prescribed life.The crack spreading rate and the crack tip stress of the main vessel can be analyzed by researching location of the maximum tensile stress.Finally a sensitivity analysis which has been set assumed value is studied.At the last part of this paper the calculation and evaluation for reactor vessel stress intensity are given which consider the primary stress and secondary stress.Based on the ASME codes,it is found that the stress intensity of the CLEAR vessel is qualified.