Analytical and experimental investigation of buckling of fast reactor heat exchanger tubes

Intermediate Heat Exchanger (IHX) tubes in fast reactors are long and slender, and can be subjected to compressive loads during an emergency shutdown which could lead to buckling. A special experimental rig was constructed at Risley to carry out full-scale tests. The effects of temperature, gridplate misalignment, and variation in geometric and material properties on the critical buckling load of the IHX tubes were examined. The results have shown that the critical buckling load is very sensitive to initial geometric imperfections present in the tube. The predicted results agree very well with those obtained experimentally. (orig.)