Development of testing techniques to evaluate thermal deformation behavior of fuel cladding tubes (Contract research)

Fuel elements used in the Reduced-Moderation Water Reactor (RMWR) have the stacking structure consisting of MOX pellets and UO2 blankets in a fuel rod in order to attain the high breeding ratio and high burn-up simultaneously. It is a characteristic of the fuel elements that there is high thermal stress caused by inhomogeneous linear power density along the longitudinal direction of the fuel rod in comparison with the present LWR fuels. For this reason, it is important to estimate local deformation behavior of the fuel cladding tube with temperature difference caused by MOX pellet and UO2 blanket. The testing machine was designed to investigate thermal-fatigue behavior under biaxial stress condition. The testing machine consists of the temperature distribution control unit, low cycle fatigue testing unit and internal pressure loading unit, it is also possible to conduct the simulation tests to investigate effects of pressure change with burn-up and longitudinal load change due to operation modes and restriction of fuel rods. (author)