Patent Number: 047626690
Section: description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In the following description, like reference characters designate like or corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings. Also in the following description, it is to be understood that such terms as "forward", "rearward", "left", "right", "upwardly", "downwardly", and the like are words of convenience and are not to be construed as limiting terms. Referring now to the drawings, and particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown a pressurized water nuclear reactor (PWR), being generally designated by the numeral 10. The PWR 10 includes a reactor pressure vessel 12 which houses a nuclear reactor core 14 composed of a plurality of elongated fuel assemblies 16. The relatively few fuel assemblies 16 shown in FIG. 1 is for purposes of simplicity only. In reality, as schematically illustrated in FIG. 2, the core 14 is composed of a great number of fuel assemblies 16. Spaced radially inwardly from the reactor vessel 12 is a generally cylindrical core barrel 18 and within the barrel 18 is a former and baffle system, hereinafter called a baffle structure 20, which permits transition from the cylindrical barrel 18 to a squared off periphery of the reactor core 14 formed by the plurality of fuel assemblies 16 being arrayed therein. The baffle structure 20 surrounds the fuel assemblies 16 of the reactor core 14. Typically, the baffle structure 20 is made of plates 22 joined together by bolts (not shown). The reactor core 14 and the baffle structure 20 are disposed between upper and lower core plates 24,26 which, in turn, are supported by the core barrel 18. The upper end of the reactor pressure vessel 12 is hermetically sealed by a removable closure head 28 upon which are mounted a plurality of control rod drive mechanisms 30. Again, for simplicity, only a few of the many control rod drive mechanism 30 are shown. Each drive mechanism 30 selectively positions a rod cluster control mechanism 32 above and within some of the fuel assemblies 16. A nuclear fission process carried out in the fuel assemblies 16 of the reactor core 14 produces heat which is removed during operation of the PWR 10 by circulating a coolant fluid, such as light water, through the core 14. More specifically, the coolant fluid is typically pumped into the reactor pressure vessel 12 through a plurality of inlet nozzles 34 (only one of which is shown in FIG. 1). The coolant fluid passes downward through an annular region 36 defined between the reactor vessel 12 and core barrel 18 (and a thermal shield 38 on the core barrel) until it reaches the bottom of the reactor vessel 12 where it turns 180 degrees prior to flowing up through the lower core plate 26 and then the reactor core 14. On flowing upward through the fuel assemblies 16 of the reactor core 14, the coolant fluid is heated to reactor operating temperatures by the transfer of heat energy from the fuel assemblies 16. The hot coolant fluid then exits the reactor vessel 12 through a plurality of outlet nozzles 40 (only one being shown in FIG. 1) extending through the core barrel 18. Thus, heat energy which the fuel assemblies 16 impart to the coolant fluid is carried off by the fluid from the pressure vessel 12. Due to the existence of holes (not shown) in the core barrel 18, coolant fluid is also present between the barrel 18 and baffle structure 20 and at a higher pressure than within the core 14. However, the baffle structure 20 together with the core barrel 18 do separate the coolant fluid from the fuel assemblies 16 as the fluid flows downwardly through the annular region 36 between the reactor vessel 12 and core barrel 18. As briefly mentioned above, the reactor core 14 is composed of a large number of elongated fuel assemblies 16. Turning to FIG. 3, each fuel assembly 16, being of the type used in the PWR 10, basically includes a lower end structure or bottom nozzle 42 which supports the assembly on the lower core plate 26 and a number of longitudinally extending guide tubes or thimbles 44 which project upwardly from the bottom nozzle 42. The assembly 16 further includes a plurality of regular transverse support grids 46 axially spaced along the lengths of the guide thimbles 44 and attached thereto. The grids 46 transversely space and support a plurality of elongated fuel rods 48 in an organized array thereof. Also, the assembly 16 has an instrumentation tube 50 located in the center thereof and an upper end structure or top nozzle 52 attached to the upper ends of the guide thimbles 44. With such arrangement of parts, the fuel assembly 16 forms an integral unit capable of being conveniently handled without damaging the assembly parts. Each fuel rod 48 of the fuel assembly 18 includes nuclear fuel pellets 54 and the opposite ends of the rod are closed by upper and lower end plugs 56,58 to hermetically seal the rod. Commonly, a plenum spring 60 is disposed between the upper end plug 56 and the pellets 54 to maintain the pellets in a tight, stacked relationship within the rod 48. The fuel pellets 54 composed of fissile material are responsible for creating the reactive power which generates heat in the core 14 of the PWR 10. As mentioned, the coolant fluid is pumped upwardly through each of the fuel assemblies 10 of the core 14 in order to extract heat generated therein for the production of useful work. To control the fission process, a number of control rods 62 of each rod cluster control mechanism 32 are reciprocally movable in the guide thimbles 44 located at predetermined positions in the fuel assembly 16. (Not all of the fuel assemblies 16 have rod cluster control mechanism 32 and thus control rods 62 associated therewith. In fact, only a small minority of the fuel assemblies do.) Specifically, each rod cluster control mechanism 32 is associated with the top nozzle 52 of the respective fuel assembly 16. The control mechanism 32 has an internally threaded cylindrical member 64 with a plurality of radially extending flukes or arms 66. Each arm 66 is interconnected to one or more control rods 62 such that the control mechanism 32 is operable to move the control rods 62 vertically in the guide thimbles 44 to thereby control the fission process in the fuel assembly 16, all in a well-known manner. All of the fuel assemblies 16 in the reactor core 14 have the conventional construction just described. However, an outer group of the fuel assemblies, each being designated as 16A and also identified by an "x" in the square boxes in FIG. 2, which are located along the periphery of the core 14 adjacent the baffle structure 20 also employ annular anti-vibration grids 68, a preferred embodiment of which is seen in FIGS. 3-6. The remainder of the fuel assemblies 16B in an inner group, which constitutes the vast majority of fuel assemblies in the core 14 and are positioned inwardly of and encompassed by the outer group of fuel assemblies, have no need for and thus do not employ the annular grids 68. As mentioned earlier, the baffle structure 20 which surrounds the fuel assemblies 16 of the reactor core 14 is made of plates 22 joined together by bolts (not shown). These bolts sometimes become loose thereby developing a small gap between the baffle structure plates 22. When this happens, a jetting action of the coolant fluid takes place through the baffle structure 20 in a radially inward direction from the exterior to the interior thereof due to the greater fluid pressure existing outside of the baffle structure 20 than within the core 14. In absence of the one or more of the annular anti-vibration grids 68 in the peripheral or outer group of fuel assemblies 16A in the core 14, the fluid jets impinging thereon would make their outer fuel rods 48 vibrate, eventually causing them to fail. Referring to FIGS. 4-6, the preferred embodiment of the annular anti-vibration grid 68 basically includes a plurality of interleaved inner and outer straps 70, 72 arranged and connected together, such as by welding, in an egg-crate configuration to define a plurality of hollow cells 74 open at their opposite ends and a large central generally square-shaped void region 76. Whereas each of the regular support grids 46, as conventionally known, defines a multiplicity of cells at least equal in number to the multiplicity or total number of the fuel rods 48 for receiving therethrough respective ones thereof and supporting them in a side-by-side array with respect to one another and to the guide thimbles 44, the plurality of cells 74 of the annular grid 68 is less in number than the multiplicity or total number of the fuel rods 48 in each fuel assembly 16A but are at least equal in number to a plurality of fuel rods positioned about the periphery of the multiplicity of fuel rods 48. Preferably, the cells 74 are equal in number to the number of fuel rods 48A in the outer three continuous rows in the square array of fuel rods. The cells 74 of the annular grid are sized to receive therethrough respective ones of the fuel rods 48A in the plurality thereof and engage the fuel rods so as to dampen any coolant fluid jetting or cross flow vibrations induced therein. On the other hand, the large central generally square-shaped void region 76 of the annular grid 68 is of a size adapted to receive therethrough the rest of the fuel rods 48 in the multiplicity thereof or those fuel rods 48B (which add up to a minority of the fuel rods) in the square array thereof bounded by the outer three continuous rows of fuel rods 48A. The preferred embodiment of the annular grid 68 seen in FIGS. 4-6 also includes means in the form of dimples or protrusions 78,80 defined on the respective inner and outer straps 70,72 which project from the planes of the respective straps into the cells 74 for engaging respective ones of the fuel rods 48A extending through the cells. Instead of protrusions 78 on the inner straps 70 forming a number of the cells 74, such number of the cells of the preferred annular grid 68 receive a like number of hollow cylindrical sleeves 82 therein. The sleeves 82 are attached, such as by welding, to the respective inner straps 70 and sized to receive a like number of the guide thimbles 44 therethrough for attachment of the annular grid 68 to those of the guide thimbles. The sleeves 82 can be attached to the like number of the guide thimbles 46 (for example, twelve thimbles in a 17.times.17 fuel assembly design) in a conventional way, such as by bulging or welding, such being the same manner that similiar sleeves (not shown) on the regular support grids 46 are attached to the guide thimbles 46. The alternative embodiment of the annular grid 68A seen in FIGS. 7-13 has the same protrustions 78, 80 and sleeves 82 as the preferred annular grid 68 and so reference should also be made to FIGS. 8-13 in the following discussion of the protrusions 78,80 and sleeves 82. The only difference between the preferred and alternative embodiments of the annular grids 68,68A is the inclusion of coolant flow deflecting means in the form of angular mixing vanes 84 formed on the inner and outer straps 78,80 which project upwardly and inwardly therfrom toward a central longitudinal axis of each cell 74. (The same reference numerals are used in referring to the components of the alternative annular grid 68A of FIGS. 7-13 as used to identify the components of the preferred annular grid 68 of FIGS. 4-6). The protrusions 78 on the inner straps 70 have a trapezoidal arched configuration open to normal longitudinal coolant flow through the annular grid 68 so as to minimize any effect on pressure drop through the grid, whereas the protrusions 80 on the outer straps 72 have a trapezoidal arched configuration parallel to normal longitudinal coolant flow through the annular grid 68 but across and in blocking relation to jetting flow from the baffle structure 20. Both of the protrusions 78,80 are generally rigid and formed on their associated straps 70,72 by a conventional stamping operation. Although protrusions 78 on the inner straps 70 project into the cells 74 a greater distance than protrusions 80 on the outer straps 72, both sets of protrusions 78,80 project into each of the cells 74 through a sufficient distance to contact and hold each fuel rod 48A received through each cell at four circumferentially spaced points on the respective opposing sides of the fuel rod. The relationship of the protrusions is such that two of them lie in a first horizontally extending plane, whereas the other two of the four protrusions lie in a second horizontally extending plane which is parallel to and axially spaced below the first horizontal plane. It can be seen from these views that each inner strap 70 has two protrusions 78 formed thereon at each cell 74, with one of the protrusions 78 projecting into one of the cells and the other projecting oppositely from the first and into the adjacent cell. It is important to note also that the sleeves 82, which attach the annular grid 68 to the several guide thimbles 44 being less in number than the total thereof in the fuel assembly 16A, are not connected with, and are substantially shorter in length than the distance between, the ones of the regular support grids 46 disposed above and below adjacent to the annular grid 68. A comparison of FIGS. 10 and 11 reveals that the sleeve 82 does not project by any substantial amount below the outer strap 72 of the grid 68. In such manner, the annular anti-vibration grids 68 being axially spaced along and connected to the selected ones of the guide thimbles 44 between at least some of the regular support grids 46 are entirely separate from and unconnected to the regular support grids. In instances where intermediate flow mixer grids, such as disclosed in the third application cross-referenced above, are already present between the regular support grids 46 in the top half of the fuel assemblies 16A, the annular grids 68 are only positioned between the support grids 46 being located nearer to the bottom nozzle 42 than to the top nozzle 44 or in the bottom half of the fuel assemblies, as is the case in FIG. 3. It will be understood that the fuel assemblies 16A with the annular anti-vibration grids 68 are only placed in the peripheral core locations most susceptible to coolant fluid jetting action through the baffle structure 20. Since the number of fuel assemblies with these annular grids 68 will be small, its impact on overall core pressure drop will be small. Also, since these peripheral core locations typically have low relative power, these assemblies will not become DNB limiting. The presence of the annular grid 68 in the outer three continuous rows of fuel rods 48A will cause more coolant to flow through longitudinally through the void region 76 of the grid and the center of the fuel assembly causing the grid to have an impact on DNB performance of the fuel assembly. But again, since the fuel assembly will have smaller relative power, the assembly will not become DNB limiting. Since the annular anti-vibration grids 68 are made of Zircaloy, and since only a few fuel assemblies will have these grids, the fuel cycle core penalty due to their presence will be small. Since it is preferable to limit the number of these fuel assemblies, they may be kept in the same peripheral core locations for several cycles. However, it is still advantageous to move these assemblies across the core diagonally in order to minimize burnup gradient and peaking factors. Unlike assemblies equipped with so-called anti-vibration clips, the assemblies with annular grids may be moved inboard to other low power locations if needed. From mechanical and handling viewpoints, the use of the annular grid is desirable since it is not necessary to remove this grid unlike the so-called anti-vibration clips. This eliminates need for special handling tools and the critical path for refueling is not impacted. It is thought that the invention and many of its attendant advantages will be understood from the foregoing description and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement thereof without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the form hereinbefore described being merely a preferred or exemplary embodiment thereof.