On predicting the expansion of zircaloy tubing in variable high temperature environments

Résumé du livre

This report summarizes the results of a portion of a research program which is intended to provide a basis for future designs of nuclear reactor fuel capable of surviving a loss of coolant accident (loca). the work reported is an analysis of 300 experiments that were required to indicate the strength and deformation characteristics of fuel cladding during thermal transients similar to those which would occur during a loca. a mathematical model which estimates the uniform expansion associated with a tube being heated at a constant heating rate is developed. it is expected that if a few additional experiments are performed in order to more accurately define the coefficients of this model (for heating rates other than 25 degrees c/sec), then it should provide a reasonable estimate of fuel clad behaviour (for epsilon less than or equal to 10 percent) during the initial and most difficult to describe stage of a loca in which both temperature and strain rate are rapidly varying.