A study of friction and axial effects in pellet-clad mechanical interaction

An analysis is made of the effect of friction forces at the pellet-cladding contact points on the behaviour of a fuel rod under a power-up ramp. A thermoelastic description of the pellets is given; the stiffness matrix and initial displacements are obtained from a finite element calculation. The cladding is considered to behave as a thermoelastic thin shell. A method is developed to assemble the stiffness of each pellet and corresponding cladding section on a fuel rod, resulting in an explicit description of the whole stack. The assumption of thermoelasticity allows for a very fast calculation, even when including hundreds of pellets under an arbitrary axial distribution of power. Results showing the pattern of friction and axial forces, and relative and localized displacements along the rod, are presented. In most cases, pellets at the top of the stack slide with respect to the clad. As a result of the build-up of axial forces due to friction, pellets at lower positions in the fuel column may show, at the contact positions, no relative displacements with respect to the cladding. The effect of pellet dishing and L/D ratio on the axial strains and local deformations are shown. The predictions are consistent with the experimental observations on the effect of pellet shape. Finally, a discussion is made of the results of this study. The use of these results as a guideline for establishing proper boundary conditions in a non-linear PCMI model (i.e., including plasticity and pellet cracking) are also discussed. (author)