Ways to reduce friction and wear of fuel elements in nuclear power

Abstract

Friction forces affect the strength of the fuel assembly at all stages of its life cycle. The work is devoted to the issues of reducing friction and wear of fuel elements of a nuclear reactor. It presents methods and results of pre-reactor experimental studies of static and dynamic processes involving friction forces. Because of the conducted research, it was found that the transformation of the movable joints of the guide channels and spacing gratings into fixed ones by means of spot welding in “rigid” fuel assemblies, together with other measures, solved the problem of curvature of the fuel assemblies. It is also shown that during the assembly of fuel assemblies, the friction force can be reduced using ultrasound.