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<strong>atw</strong> Vol. 64 (2019) | Issue 4 ı April<br />

Failure Analysis of the Jet Pumps Riser<br />

in a Boiling Water Reactor-5<br />

Pablo Ruiz-López, Luis Héctor Hernández-Gómez, Juan Cruz-Castro, Gilberto Soto-Mendoza,<br />

Juan Alfonso Beltrán-Fernánde and Guillermo Manuel Urriolagoitia-Calderón<br />

The arrangement of a riser coupled with two jet pumps is an important element in the Reactor Recirculation Core<br />

system of a Boiling Water Reactor. Its operational objective is to <strong>for</strong>ce the flow of water through the core <strong>for</strong> load variation<br />

and <strong>for</strong> safety is to keep the core flooded. In order to avoid thermal stresses, they are supported in a flexible way. In<br />

this case, the material expansion does not introduce stresses. The riser is only fixed at the upper zone welded at the<br />

riser brace. An important concern happens when the assembly vibrates under a torsional mode around its longitudinal<br />

axis. Under these conditions, helical cracks can be initiated at the riser brace weld. In this paper, a methodology <strong>for</strong> the<br />

evaluation of the structural integrity of the cracked riser is presented. It is considered that failure can take place in a<br />

brittle or in a ductile manner. For its evaluation, such cracks are projected along the axial and circumferential axis and<br />

evaluated in both conditions. In the first case, Fracture Mechanics are used. The ductile failure is evaluated applying the<br />

Collapse Limit Load analysis. The allowable crack length was determined when the flow through the core varied between<br />

95% and 107%. These analyses were carried out when one or two recirculation circuits were in operation. In<br />

order to demonstrate the application of these results, three cases were analyzed. The results were evaluated with the<br />

Failure Assessment Diagram R6.<br />

213<br />

OPERATION AND NEW BUILD<br />

1 Introduction<br />

The Reactor Recirculation Core System<br />

in a Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) plays<br />

an important role. It induces a <strong>for</strong>ced<br />

flow of water through the core to<br />

increase the power density and the<br />

safety function is to provide coolability<br />

<strong>for</strong> the core to maintain the water level<br />

at two thirds of the height of the core.<br />

There are twenty jet pumps in a<br />

BWR-5. They are arranged in ten pairs<br />

in the annular region between the<br />

inner wall and the core shroud.<br />

Each pair is joined with a riser pipe<br />

(Figure 1).<br />

In order to avoid thermal expansion<br />

stresses, this arrangement is<br />

supported in a flexible way. In other<br />

words, the upper part of the riser is<br />

stiff welded to a flexible brace, which<br />

is clamped on the inner surface of the<br />

reactor vessel. The bottom of the riser<br />

is joined with an elbow, which connects<br />

this arrangement to a circular<br />

manifold. Besides, the bottom of each<br />

jet pump has a slip joint. Thus, axial<br />

displacement can take place without<br />

any restriction. It has to be kept in<br />

mind, that the two pumps and the<br />

riser are joined by a joke. The stiffness<br />

is increased while the three elements<br />

are maintained together by such joke.<br />

However, this stiffness is reduced<br />

when wear of the wedge of the joke<br />

has taken place. The worst condition<br />

is when such wedge is completely<br />

loosen.<br />

The jet pumps are subjected to an<br />

internal flow and an external cross<br />

flow of water. There<strong>for</strong>e, structural<br />

vibrations are exacerbated when the<br />

jet pumps are not completely tight. If<br />

this situation arises, the weld at the<br />

| | Fig. 1.<br />

BWR-5 3-D view and detailed view of the jet pump section.<br />

riser brace has to support the fatigue<br />

loads which are developed. In the<br />

open literature [1], it has been reported<br />

that a 6.6 inch crack was developed<br />

at the riser, close to the weld of the<br />

riser of a brace of the unit 1 of the<br />

Kousheng <strong>Nuclear</strong> <strong>Power</strong> Plant. It was<br />

during the 16 nd outage in March of<br />

2003.<br />

In a 2014 work [2], the first five<br />

modes of vibration were calculated. It<br />

was observed that the fourth mode is<br />

torsional around the axial axis of the<br />

riser. Its resonance frequency is<br />

43.4 Hz, which can induce helicoidal<br />

cracks at the zone of the welds mentioned<br />

above. These calculations were<br />

done with SAP 2000 code [3]. In this<br />

analysis, the mass of the riser and<br />

the two jet pumps was considered.<br />

Besides, the mass of water inside and<br />

outside of this arrangement was also<br />

taken into account. The considerations<br />

<strong>for</strong> this purpose were based on<br />

the works of Blevins [4]. The flexibility<br />

of the bends, which took place<br />

during its ovalization, was introduced.<br />

The stiffness matrix was modified.<br />

The boundary conditions at the riser<br />

brace, riser bracket and slip joint were<br />

introduced in the numerical model.<br />

For the purpose of this work, a helical<br />

crack was analyzed.<br />

This analysis was also carried out<br />

with ANSYS 14.5 code. The same<br />

mode was obtained at 39.5 Hz,<br />

following the same considerations.<br />

These results are in agreement with<br />

those reported by Stevens and<br />

coworkers [5].<br />

The analysis of potential cracks in<br />

jet pumps has attracted attention [6].<br />

In<strong>for</strong>mation on potential failure<br />

locations in BWR/3-6 jet pumps is<br />

provided in this document. Fatigue<br />

and Intergranular Stress Corrosion<br />

Cracking plays an important role.<br />

Such document also mentions that<br />

Operation and New Build<br />

Failure Analysis of the Jet Pumps Riser in a Boiling Water Reactor-5<br />

ı Pablo Ruiz-López, Luis Héctor Hernández-Gómez, Juan Cruz-Castro, Gilberto Soto-Mendoza, Juan Alfonso Beltrán-Fernánde and Guillermo Manuel Urriolagoitia-Calderón

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