Steam-Generator Tube-Plugging and Tube-Sleeving Criteria: Assessment of Current Practices (PWR)

摘要

A two-part project was undertaken to: (1) review steam-generator tube plugging/sleeving practices and (2) numerically and experimentally analyzed strain in dented tubes. A review of the open literature and a survey of the majority of Steam-Generator Owners-Group Utilities concerning steam-generator tube plugging and sleeving criteria was performed. The review concentrated on the evolution of a plant's plugging/sleeving criteria, technical bases of the criteria, and field experience using these criteria in preventing tube leaks. Strain in dented tubes was analyzed. A finite-element analysis was performed as a check on the Fourier series and cubic-spline strain-calculation techniques. Finite-element results were verified by an experimental program using a moire grid technique that measured tube outside diameter (OD) and inside diameter (ID) surface hoop strains in mechanicaly dented tubes. Strain results from the finite-element and experimental programs were then used to test the accuracy of the Fourier series and cubic-spline techniques. (ERA citation 08:029559)