This study has been made in an attempt to find the structural integrity of the fuel assembly (FA) of Chashma Nuclear Power Plant-1 (CHASNUPP-1) at room temperature in air. | Structural integrity assessment and stress measurement of CHASNUPP-1 fuel assembly Part A under tensile loading condition EPJ Nuclear Sci. Technol. 2 18 2016 Nuclear Sciences Waseem et al. published by EDP Sciences 2016 amp Technologies DOI epjn 2016008 Available online at http REGULAR ARTICLE Structural integrity assessment and stress measurement of CHASNUPP-1 fuel assembly Part A under tensile loading condition Waseem Ghulam Murtaza Ashfaq Ahmad Siddiqui and Syed Waseem Akhtar Directorate General Nuclear Power Fuel Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission PO Box No. 1847 44000 Islamabad Pakistan Received 10 September 2015 Received in final form 26 November 2015 Accepted 28 January 2016 Published online 8 April 2016 Abstract. Fuel assembly of the PWR nuclear power plant is a long and flexible structure. This study has been made in an attempt to find the structural integrity of the fuel assembly FA of Chashma Nuclear Power Plant-1 CHASNUPP-1 at room temperature in air. The non-linear contact and structural tensile analysis have been performed using ANSYS in order to determine the fuel assembly FA elongation behaviour as well as the location and values of the stress intensity and stresses developed in axial direction under applied tensile load of 9800 N or 2 g being the fuel assembly handling or lifting load Y. Zhang et al. Fuel assembly design report SNERDI China 1994 . The finite element FE model comprises spacer grids fuel rods flexible contacts between the fuel rods and grid s supports system and guide thimbles with dash-pots and flow holes in addition to the spot welds between spacer grids and guide thimbles has been developed using Shell181 Conta174 and Targe170 elements. FA is a non-straight structure. The actual behavior of the geometry is non-linear due to its curvature or design tolerance. It has been observed that fuel assembly elongation values obtained through FE analysis and experiment SNERDI Tech. Doc. Mechanical strength and .
