Design of rotating plugs

The paper outlines the problems of designing the top shield structure of fast reactor, which will essentially consist of two rotating plugs with eccentric housings in each. The plugs will contain shielding materials. The plugs should withstand an internal test pressure of 1 bar. At normal working conditions, the plug bottom will be around 4000C whereas the top will be maintained at 400C. Considering each rotating plug as a pressure vessel, it has a unique structure. Three horizontal plates and four vertical shells form two chambers. The plates have an eccentric hole each. Vertical tubes traverse the height of the plug structure and are fixed at the two ends to the plates. The available literature does not provide means to analyse the stresses in the components; therefore simulated studies will be needed to design such structures. (author)