Stress Corrosion Analysis of Steam Generator Tube of Nuclear Power Plant by Finite Elements

Abstract

The steam generator is operated under the pressure of 15.5MPa and the temperature 327°C. Under this working condition the junction of the heat transfer tube and tube-sheet is accident-prone areas of the steam generator. By using ANSYS to carry out a thermal structure coupling analysis on the junction, it is found that a large tensile stress along axial and tangential directions occurs on outer surface of the heat transfer tube and is located at the region of 2.0 mm to 6.0 mm high over the tube-sheet. The stress attributes to the rapidly change of temperature on the tube outer surface and leads to the stress corrosions.