Fracture of Graphite Fuel Bricks

先进气冷堆(AGR)中的石墨堆芯为燃料冷却和停堆/控制棒插入提供了通道。损害容忍度评估需要确定为燃料的完整性和安全系统的适当行为留有足够的余量。对于英国现有的工厂来说，石墨砖的开裂是一个关系到终身管理决策的关键问题。对于下一代工厂，它对预期寿命和投资计划有影响。这项建议的目的是通过互补的数值和实验方法来更好地理解和评估石墨组件的断裂。将开发一种先进的建模工具，能够自动模拟石墨砖中的裂纹扩展，并将其传递给工业最终用户。将详细阐述一种创新的实验方法来验证这些模型。将对整个核心机械性能的不确定性进行评估。

The graphite core in nuclear Advanced Gas cooled Reactors (AGRs) provides channel for fuel cooling and shutdown/control rod insertion. Damage tolerance assessments need to determine that adequate margins remain for theintegrity of the fuel and the safety systems proper behaviour. For UK existing plants, graphite bricks' cracking is a keyquestion regarding lifetime management decisions. For the next generation plants, it has an influence on expected lifetimesand on investment plans.The objective of this proposal is to gain a good understanding and evaluation of fracture in graphite components bycomplementary numerical and experimental approaches. An advanced modelling tool allowing to simulate automaticallycrack propagation in graphite bricks will be developed and transferred to industry end-users. An innovative experimentalmethod will be elaborated to validate these models. Uncertainties on the whole core mechanical behaviour will beassessed.