Spacers for fuel elements as structural anisotropic plates composed of cylindrical shells

Fuel rods are kept at given distances by means of spacer components. During reactor operations the spacers are subject to a number of temperature and force effects which may cause a failure. The quantitative evaluation of theses effects and their consequences is necessary for the elaboration of a successful design of the spacer components. In this paper the results of investigations concerning the state of stress in the spacers which are assumed to be 'structural anisotropic plates composed of cylindrical shells' (below: 'plates' only), as well as the behaviour of the spacers in the interactions with fuel elements are presented. A method is developed whereby the deformations and stresses in mentioned plates can be computed. An application of the developed method-including its experimental verification-from the region of spacers for nuclear reactors is shown. The agreement between the theoretical results and experimental ones is reasonably good. (Auth.)