SKELETON – Determination of the material behaviour of irradiated fuel assembly structural parts

SKELETON combines the processing of existing test data with new investigations on irradiated FE structural components. First of all, the results of experiments that have already been carried out are systematically evaluated in order to create a reliable database on the behaviour of PWR control rod guide tubes. In addition, samples from a water channel of a BWR-FE used in a German nuclear power plant are analysed in the hot cells of Framatome GmbH. This includes measurements of fracture toughness, complete stress-strain curves and determination of the hydrogen content. Heat treatment simulates the conditions of dry interim storage, and the resulting material changes are analysed and recorded.

The characteristic values obtained experimentally are incorporated into the development of physically consistent material models, which are implemented in a numerical simulation environment. By comparing the simulation results with the measurement data obtained and with established fuel performance codes, a validated tool is created that realistically depicts typical load scenarios during transport, interim storage and handling.