Finite Element Modeling of Fluid/Thermal/Structural Interaction for a Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor Core

摘要

At the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL), out-of-pile facilities are currently in use for simulating a Protected Loss of Flow Accident (PLOF) for the Gas Cooled Fast Reactor (GCFR) development program. Design activities are currently underway for a test that will employ 438 simulated fuel rods to simulate a hexagonally shaped GCFR core module and its six boundaries. One of the objectives of this series of tests is to demonstrate the behavior of one of the GCFR modules in the event of a loss of coolant flow and subsequent shutdown of the reactor to the power level provided by the decay heat. Another objective is to provide some insight into the structural design for the module by identifying areas for which current designs can be improved. This paper is aimed at describing the analytical tool developments and applications for examining the complex processes of the fluid/thermal/structural interaction of these GCFR experiments. One of the tools that will be described in some detail is the development of an efficient finite element for the thermoelastic moderately large deformation of a a beam column. (ERA citation 05:034988)