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Assembly-oriented reliability analysis method for the top-connection structure of a nuclear fuel assembly

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Abstract

The nuclear fuel assembly is the core component of a nuclear reactor. In a pressurized water reactor fuel assembly, the top-connection structure connects the top nozzle to the guide thimble. Its performance reliability is essential for the stability of the nuclear fuel assembly. In this study, an assembly-oriented reliability analysis method for top-connection structures is presented by establishing an assembly-oriented top-connection structure parameter modeling method and a nonlinear contact gap and penetration correction method. A reliability model of the top-connection assembly structure, including multiple stochastic design variables, was constructed, and the overall reliability of the top-connection assembly structure was obtained via a Kriging model and Monte Carlo simulation. The acquired experimental data were consistent with real-world failure conditions, which verified the practicability and feasibility of the reliability analysis method proposed in this study.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Science Data Bank at https://www.doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.j00186.00077 and https://cstr.cn/31253.11.sciencedb.j00186.00077.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Ying-Dong Liu, Wen-Qiang Li, Jia-Hao Chen, Si-Tong Ling & Chang-Fu Wan

  2. Innovation Method and Creative Design Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Ying-Dong Liu, Wen-Qiang Li, Jia-Hao Chen, Si-Tong Ling & Chang-Fu Wan

Authors
  1. Ying-Dong Liu
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  2. Wen-Qiang Li
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Ying-Dong Liu, Wen-Qiang Li, Jia-Hao Chen, Si-Tong Ling and Chang-Fu Wan. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Ying-Dong Liu, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wen-Qiang Li.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52075350), the Major Science and Technology Projects of Sichuan Province (No. 2022ZDZX0001), and the Special City School Strategic Cooperation Project of Sichuan University and Zigong (No. 2021CDZG-3).

Appendices

Appendix 1: Pre-experimental design matrix and experiment results

See Table 8.

Table 8 Pre-experimental design matrix and experiment results
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Appendix 2: Experimental design matrix and experimental results

See Table 9.

Table 9 Experimental design matrix and experimental results
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Liu, YD., Li, WQ., Chen, JH. et al. Assembly-oriented reliability analysis method for the top-connection structure of a nuclear fuel assembly. NUCL SCI TECH 34, 82 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41365-023-01247-7

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