Search

• The design of the Core Assembly Deformation Test Facility was described in detail. • The conditions of assembly bending and thermal bowing tests were introduced briefly. • The heating and measurement technologies and the layout of sensors were introduced. China Demonstration Fast Reactor (CFR600) is under construction, and the Sub-assembly Deformation Analysis Program (SDAP) developed by China Institute of Atomic Energy is used to optimize the core design and operation management of CFR600. The Core Assembly Deformation Test Facility (CADTF), designed and built by Xi'an Jiaotong University, was selected to carry out a series of assembly bending and thermal bowing tests to provide validation problems for the SDAP. The specimen assembly was specially designed for better non-intrusive optical temperature measurement of the inner wrapper tube. The automatic heating control method and a lot of new measurement technology were applied into the tests to gain abundant and accurate test data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The assembly compression test was described, and the section stiffness were given. • The assembly bending test was described, and the bending stiffness were given. • Compared and discussed the data of the IAEA benchmark tests and the XJTU tests. China Fast Reactor (CFR) is under construction, and the section stiffness and bending stiffness of CFR assemblies remain unknown and need to be investigated to support the core restraint system design and reactivity safety assessment. In this study, assembly compression tests were performed with three types of test samples. With the compression load varying from 0 to 6 kN, the compressive deformations were measured and the section stiffness were obtained. In assembly bending tests, there were two types of assemblies considering different spike clearances, and the horizontal loads from 400 N to 1900 N were applicable to the upper-load-pad, lower-load-pad and mid-fissile-region level of the assemblies. Assembly deflections were measured and correlations for the load-deflection ratio were proposed. Comparison of theoretical and experimental bending stiffness were carried out, which indicated that the spike clearance has to be taken into consideration in the assembly deformation analysis codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]