Session: FSI-02-03 Tube Arrays - 3

Paper Number: 105842

105842 - Advancing the State-of-the-Art for Fretting Wear Testing 

High-temperature fretting wear tests conducted at CNL’s Chalk River Laboratories have provided valuable insights into the wear characteristics of nuclear power plant components since the 1970s. The initial testing approach relied on a rudimentary unbalanced motor excitation system, along with pre- and post-test characterization of the work rate.  The approach was developed over subsequent decades to enable work rate monitoring during test runtime, through the incorporation of high-temperature dynamic force and displacement sensors into the harsh (up to 12 MPa, 320°C) test environment. The approach successfully enabled investigators to predict the life of CANDU and light water reactor components subjected to in-service vibrations, for example in the case of fuel fretting and steam generator tube/support fretting.

In 2019, CNL started an effort to update its fretting wear testing capabilities to leverage advancements in data acquisition hardware, computational technology, and vibration instrumentation, to meet the evolving needs of the nuclear industry.  This effort saw an overhaul of the test control and monitoring approach, enabling the excitation of the test specimens to be generated based on empirical excitation force spectra, as well as real-time monitoring and tallying of contact events throughout tests of extended durations (typically 500 hours).  Alongside the retrofitting of the existing facilities, new capabilities are also being developed to enable fretting wear testing in advanced reactor conditions, such as testing in 700°C helium representative of high-temperature gas reactors, and testing in refreshed autoclave environments to enable more stringent chemistry control.  An overview will be provided for CNL’s recently-upgraded fretting wear testing capabilities and those under development.

Presenting Author: Salim El Bouzidi Canadian Nuclear Laboratories

Presenting Author Biography: Salim El Bouzidi is an R&D Scientist at CNL

Authors:

Salim El Bouzidi Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
Fabrice Guerout Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
Paul Feenstra Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ltd.
Anne McLellan Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
Brendan St. Pierre Canadian Nuclear Laboratories