Transport of large nuclear power plant components: experiences in mechanical design assessment

Abstract

In the course of decommissioning of power plants in Germany large nuclear components (steam generator, reactor pressure vessel) must be transported over public traffic routes to interim storage facilities, where they are dismantled or stored temporarily. Since it concerns surface contaminated objects or low specific activity materials, a safety evaluation considering the IAEA transport regulations mainly for industrial packages (type IP-2) is necessary. For these types of industrial packages the requirements from normal transport conditions are to be covered for the mechanical proof. For example, a free drop of the package from a defined height, in dependence of its mass, onto an unyielding target, and a stacking test are required. Since physical drop tests are impossible generally due to the singularity of such 'packages', a calculation has to be performed, preferably by a complex numerical analysis. The assessment of the loads takes place on the basis of local stress distributions, also with consideration of radiation induced brittleness of the material and with consideration of recent scientific investigation results. Large nuclear components have typically been transported in an unpackaged manner, so that the external shell of the component provides the packaging wall. The investigation must consider the entire component including all penetration areas such as manholes or nozzles. According to the present IAEA regulations the drop position is to be examined, which causes the maximum damage to the package. In the case of a transport under special arrangement a drop only in an attitude representing the usual handling position (administratively controlled) is necessary. If dose rate values of the package are higher than maximum allowable values for a public transport, then it is necessary that additional shielding construction units are attached to the large component.     

Inferences on plastic properties and coefficient of friction during simultaneous compression deformation of dissimilar sintered powder metallurgical preforms

Abstract

Plastic working of powder metallurgical (PM) material necessitates the development of fundamental data such as flow stress, densification behaviour, coefficient of friction, apparent strength coefficient, apparent strain hardening exponent, plastic Poisson's ratio, etc. In the present work compression and standard ring compression tests have been carried out to generate the fundamental data for simultaneous deformation of sintered steel and copper powder metallurgical preforms. The results reveal that the behaviour of individual materials during simultaneous deformation is strongly influenced by local micromechanical interactions at the metal - metal interface. In addition to this, the test conditions (iso-stress and iso-strain) strongly influence the severity of interaction. The interfacial friction coefficients are less than that of the same material when tested between hard tools. The optimal process parameters with higher interfacial friction, which can enhance the solid state joining of dissimilar materials, have been identified. The flow stress of the composite (steel - copper combination) during simultaneous deformation can be estimated if the flow stress of the individual materials comprising the combination/composite are known. With these studies, it should be possible to extend the inferences to the major deformation processes.     

Fatigue crack growth in some PM low alloy steels consolidated by rotary forging and sintering

Abstract

Fatigue crack propagation rates under plane strain conditions have been investigated for three PM low alloy steels consolidated to high densities by rotary compaction followed by sintering and heat treatment. It is shown that the densities and properties are intermediate between those of pressed and sintered materials and of powder forged materials. Threshold stress intensities compare satisfactorily with those for wrought counterparts, but resistances to crack growth are inferior to those of wrought steels. Possible reasons for the properties of the rotary compacted materials are considered in the light of their microstructures and the behaviour of other PM materials.     

Reactive sintering in Fe-Co system

Abstract

Low porosity powder metallurgy compacts have been manufactured from treated elemental iron and cobalt powders sintered at 1150°C under an H_2(g) atmosphere. Their microstructures consist of an interconnected mixed oxide network which encapsulates both the iron and cobalt phases. The production technique employed is an innovative process termed reacto-thermitic sintering (RTS), which leads to near full density and near net shape parts utilising conventional uniaxial compaction and mesh belt furnace practices. The RTS technique relies on microscale exothermic reaction between small quantities of added elemental Al and oxides present on the surface of the bulk powder, together with the bulk powder itself. This results in the production of a transient liquid phase which freezes rapidly and consolidates the compact without slumping. In order to generate an interconnected mixed oxide network, experiments were designed such that the Al powder reacts with the cobalt and the surface of the iron powder which is artificially doped with Fe and Cr oxides.

Differential thermal analysis (DTA) and energy balance calculations revealed that the Al and the oxide coating reaction does not proceed directly. Instead the main contribution to the exothermic process is the reaction between Al and Co/Fe. The system does not exhibit true RTS behaviour and the interconnected network of mixed Al, Cr, and Fe oxides is created by subsequent reaction of Co-Al and Fe-Al intermetallics with the artificial Fe-Cr oxide coating on the Fe. The microstructure obtained exhibits negligible porosity with the metallic particles on the whole fully encapsulated by the oxide.     

Micro-gravity experiment of a space robotic arm using parabolic flight

We conducted a micro-gravity flight experiment on a space robotic arm, which is a part of the Reconfigurable Brachiating space Robot (RBR) unit arm developed by the authors. We used a 4-d.o.f. arm and an end-effector in the experiment. The airplane (MU-300) generates the micro-gravity environment for approximately 20 s in parabolic flight operation. After the flight, we conducted the corresponding ground experiments, and obtained the data of the motor current, servo control characteristics and manipulation performances, which were compared with the flight experiment data. Then, we conducted the numerical analysis of the 4-d.o.f. RBR arm based on the experiment results. In the analysis, we investigated feasibility of simulation model and identified model parameters. In this paper, we report the results of the flight experiments and numerical analysis.     

Effect of heating rate on dielectric and pyroelectric properties of double doped PZT

Abstract

Double doped lead zirconium titanate (PZT) was synthesised by solid state reaction method. Calcination and sintering was carried out at various heating rates in order to study the effect of heating rate on the extent of phase formation of double doped PZT. Furthermore, the effect of heating rate on dielectric and pyroelectric properties was also investigated. Rhombohedral perovskite phase was confirmed in the double doped PZT samples. Quantitative X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis suggests that the extent of PZT formation decreases beyond 8°C min^?1 heating rate. The crystallite and grain sizes calculated from Scherrer's equation and field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) photographs respectively show the decreasing behaviour with increasing heating rate. Dielectric and pyroelectric properties show the increasing behaviour up to 8°C min^?1 and decreasing behaviour beyond this heating rate.     

33—THE SNARLING OF HIGHLY TWISTED MONOFILAMENTS. PART II: CYLINDRICAL SNARLING

An account is given of an experimental investigation of the cylindrical snarling of highly twisted monofilaments.

The theory underlying cylindrical snarling is set out, and an expression is derived for calculating the critical twist level at which normal snarling will be replaced by cylindrical snarling. Experiments on rubber filaments are described, and it is shown that there is good agreement between the theoretical and experimental results. Further experiments, in which the specimen was allowed to contract freely or forced into other forms, are also described.

It is shown from these experiments that it is difficult to establish the true equilibrium behaviour, since the situation appears to be dominated by frictional effects or by direct barriers to relative movement.     

Laser welding of copper–nickel alloys: a numerical and experimental analysis

Abstract

Melt run trials were carried out on Cu–Ni bars using a CO₂ laser source in order to analyse the effects of welding parameters (i.e. laser power, welding speed) on geometrical characteristics and on the microstructure of the bead. Experimental results were then used to determine the source parameters to be employed in a finite element model (FEM) of the welding process, with particular attention paid to the thermal field induced by the laser beam. A specific procedure, named 'automatic remeshing technique', was used in order to minimise the computation time. The aim was to create a reliable numerical model, suitable for the optimisation, in practical cases, of welding processes of these kinds of materials. A good correlation, in terms of predicted cooling rates, with the values calculated from SDAS measurements, was observed.     

19—CAPSTAN FRICTION FOR POLYMER MONOFILAMENTS WITH RIGIDITY

It has been shown that the conventional analysis of the capstan-friction behaviour of textile materials is innaccurate for two reasons: firstly, because it ignores the fact that such materials do not as a rule obey Amontons's Law, and. secondly, because the effect of the rigidity of the body passing round the capstan has been neglected. These effects have been analysed separately in a series of papers, but in this paper an attempt is made to take both effects into account. To do this it is necessary to obtain the relationship between the friction constants for localized- and distributed-force systems. This is done, and the resulting equations are shown to give predictions that are in agreement with experimental findings.