A Study on the Static Buckling Load Estimation of the Spacer Grid in the Pressurized Water Reactor Fuel Assembly

Abstract

This study contains several estimation methods of the static buckling load for the spacer grid of nuclear fuel assembly in pressurized water reactor. Three different estimation methods were proposed for the calculation of the static buckling loads of spacer grid. The linear and non-linear static buckling analyses were performed to estimate the static buckling load of the spacer grids using ANSYS program. The analyses results were compared with the static buckling test results. Based on the analysis and test results, the applicability of the proposed estimation method for the static buckling load of the spacer grid was investigated.