Proceedings of the 2014 22nd International Conference on Nuclear Engineering
ICONE22
EFFECT OF SUPPORT FRICTION IN THERMAL STRESS OF VVER-1000 RCS FOR
NOP CONDITION
Truong Quang Nguyen
KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School
Now with “National Research Ins. of Mech. Eng.,”
Hanoi City, Vietnam
ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this research is to investigate the
effect of friction in the thermal stress of Reactor Coolant
System (RCS) of VVER-1000. RCS is a large system
connecting reactor vessel, steam generators and RC Pumps.
During the heat-up of reactor, the RCS expand and during cool-
down of reactor, it contracts. Because of the heavy weight of
reactor and steam generator, the friction at the support of RCS
affects the thermal stress of RCS. In this paper how much
support friction contributes to the development of thermal stress
is assessed in order to investigate the thermal stress and effect
of support friction. A quarter-symmetry model of VVER-1000
RCS is developed in ANSYS and meshed with hexahedral
elements to ensure better solution accuracies. The model
includes reactor vessel, steam generator and reactor coolant
pump. Internals of reactor vessel, steam generators and RCPs
are represented by point mass to simplify the model.
Temperature of inside surface of hot-leg side of reactor vessel
to inlet side of steam generator is assumed same uniform hot-leg
temperature, and the temperature of inside surface of outlet side
of steam generator to reactor vessel is uniform cold-leg
temperature. All outside surface are assumed insulated. The
analysis includes neither transient thermal loading nor dynamic
loadings. The analysis results show that friction at support
brings little effect on the peak thermal stress. The peak thermal
stress occurs at hot-leg nozzle of reactor pressure vessel and it
approached near yield stress. If load combination is included
the localized total stress at hot-leg nozzle could go over the
yield stress. This peak stress could affect fatigue life in a long
run. A recommendation is made that a detailed fatigue analysis
of VVER-1000 RCS is necessary.
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July 7-11, 2014, Prague, Czech Republic
ICONE22-30904
Ihn Namgung
KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School
Ulsan, Republic of Korea
INTRODUCTION
When a structure is heated or cooled, it expands or
contracts. Thermal stresses are developed from non-uniform
deformation within structure due to uneven temperature
distribution which is caused by varying heat transfer within the
structure. The thermal stress can also develop due to constraint
at support or at boundary by other connecting structures.
In this study, thermal stresses of internally heated reactor
coolant system (RCS) of the VVER-1000 type nuclear power
plant during normal operation are analyzed. Due to global
temperature difference in RCS in normal operation temperature
and constraining force of support friction, thermal stress
develops. The contribution of friction force in thermal stresses
of VVER-1000 RCS due to normal operating condition is
considered to estimate the maximum stress within the RCS.
Temperature distribution of the whole RCS system was
determined based on conservative assumption where inside
surface of lot-leg side are uniform high temperature and cold-
leg side is uniform low temperature. The secondary side of
steam generator is also assumed uniform low temperature, see
table 1. The RCS considered in this study consists of reactor
vessel, steam generators, reactor coolant pumps, hot-leg and
cold-leg nozzles and pipes.
ANSYS 14.5 is used to develop finite element method
(FEM) model of the VVER-1000 RCS, and to simulate
temperature and stress distributions during normal operation.
The stress concentrations indicate where the highest thermal
stresses and largest deformation occur in the whole system.
VVER-1000 REACTOR COOLANT SYSTEM
The VVER-1000 reactor is a pressurized light water cooled
and moderated reactor similar to Western pressurized water
reactors. It is rated at 3,000 MW thermal and 1,000 MW
 electric powers. The VVER-1000 is a four-loop design which temperature for each component. The resulting temperature
consists of four steam generators and four reactor coolant distributions are used as input loading to the structural analysis.
pumps. The primary circuit consists of one reactor vessel in the Material properties such as thermal expansion coefficients are
center, one pressurizer, and four connecting loops. All four defined for each component in the structure. Temperature
loops are symmetrical about a vertical axis at the center of the distributions are used to solve displacement distribution and
reactor vessel. Each loop consists of one hot leg, one cold leg, finally obtain the thermal stresses of the structures in the system
one reactor coolant pump, and one horizontal steam generator. [3].
This arrangement is shown in Figure 1.
The reactor vessel and steam generator support structures
allow for thermal expansion and contraction displacements in
the vertical and horizontal direction, as well as restraining
movements under seismic occurrences. Three support linkages
are installed on the reactor coolant pump casing which support
vertical deadweight of the reactor coolant pump and
accommodate horizontal movements of RCS thermal
expansions [2].

Figure 2. Thermo-structural analysis procedure

· SYSTEM MODELLING
The VVER-1000 RCS contains four loops which are
symmetrical about the vertical axis through the center of the
reactor vessel. For the scope of this study, only one loop is
modeled for thermal stress investigation by taking advantage of
system symmetry without the loss of solution accuracy. The
system model, illustrated in Figure 3, consists of a quarter of the
reactor vessel, one steam generator vessel, one reactor coolant
pump, one hot and cold leg pipe, and the support structures for
each component. Reactor coolant pump casings and steam
generator vessel are modeled based on the exact weight and
Figure 1. Primary circuit layout in plane-view shape of these components. All other components are modeled
with their respective deadweight included as lumped mass in the
model. The load weights of these components are used as
THERMAL STRESS ANALYSIS WITH FEM boundary conditions.
The thermal stress analysis is based on heat balance
equation derived from the principle of conservation of energy.
Nodal temperatures are calculated using finite element method,
and the solutions are subsequently used to obtain other thermal
parameter values. The whole VVER-1000 RCS system is first
modeled in 3D CAD system (CATIA), and then brought into
ANSYS. In doing this, to reduce the model size, symmetry of
the RCS is utilized. A quarter-model of the RCS is created for
the FEM model. To create hexahedral mesh and to simplify
mesh refinement, the CAD model is divided into small objects
and merged into combined single entities in ANSYS. The final
model is based on hexahedral mesh and the nozzle regions are
further refined to accurately calculate stress distribution.
In this study, static thermal stresses are treated for normal
operation whereas any transient operations are not considered.
The thermal stress analysis involves two sequential analyses as
shown in Figure 2. ANSYS performs a steady-state thermal Figure 3. VVER-1000 RCS symmetry model
analysis by applying thermal loading in terms of the

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 · MESH REFINEMENT temperature distributions of the model, as shown in Figure 5,
o o
The shape and structure of the model affects the quality of ranges between 278.5 C and 318.0 C which corresponds to the
mesh. Additionally, higher mesh quality will result in increased secondary side steam generator and hot leg operating
accuracy of the simulation results. The refined mesh size is temperature, respectively.
controlled by limiting the minimum element size to 50 mm. All
elements are hexahedral mesh with a relevance value set to 30
and the relevance center set to medium. Figure 3 shows the final
structural analysis model of VVER-1000 RCS with
approximately 3.59 million elements.

· DISPLACEMENT BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

Boundary loads or known temperature distribution at
certain surfaces for steady-state normal operating condition are
specified. In the VVER-1000 RCS, there are three different
operating temperatures throughout the system; the hot leg, the
cold leg, and the secondary side steam generator inside
temperatures. Prior to performing ANSYS thermal stress
analysis, the static structural analyses due to deadweight of
components are carried out to obtain stresses in the system due
to deadweight. These stresses are superimposed with thermal
stresses later on to get the combined stress due to deadweight
and thermal load. The loading conditions of operating Figure 4. Structural boundary conditions defined on RCS
temperature and self-weight applied to the model are listed in
Table 1. The effective thermal stress distributions induced by
differential temperatures in the model for frictional and
Table 1. System model loading conditions frictionless support cases are shown in Figures 6 and 7,
Parameter Value Unit respectively. The maximum equivalent thermal stress for the
frictional support case is slightly higher than those of the
o
Hot leg operating temperature, TH 318.9 C frictionless support case. This indicates that the support friction
o
does not present relevant effect on the resulting thermal stress
Cold leg operating temperature, TC 287.0 C and that the thermal stress is intrinsic to the loop shape of the
VVER-1000 reactor configuration. If RCS structures deform, it
Secondary side SG operating o
278.5 C overcomes the reaction forces that occur at every support
temperature, TSG locations and exceeded the static friction force at those
o supports. In this case, the friction coefficient does not have
Environment temperature, TE 20.0 C
much effect on the magnitude of the effective thermal stress.
Weight of RCP motor 45,500 kg It is evident that the maximum equivalent thermal stresses
on the RCS are similar for both cases. Large thermal stresses
Total weight of SG components 244,140 kg are concentrated in regions where different components are
connected, i.e. between the reactor vessel, reactor coolant
Reactor vessel, steam generator and RCP vertical supports pump, and steam generator nozzles and the hot and cold leg
are set up as frictional supports with friction coefficient of 0.3 piping. Out of these, the highest thermal stress occurred at the
in case 1 and frictionless in case 2. The symmetry planes of reactor vessel outlet nozzle. This is caused by the differences in
reactor vessel surface are set up as frictionless, i.e. the friction thermal expansion coefficients between two different structure
coefficient is set to zero, in order to properly represent the materials of the reactor vessel outlet nozzle and hot leg pipe,
behaviour of structural deformation. The setup of boundary which consequently cause uneven elasticity. Another
conditions for the model is shown in Figure 4. contributing factor is due to higher temperatures at this region
compared to other locations.
The von-Mises criterion is used to check whether effective
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS thermal stresses induced in material of the structure satisfies this
criterion or not (i.e. the maximum value of von-Mises stress
· TEMPERATURE AND STRESS DISTRIBUTIONS induced in the material is less than strength of the material).
Steady-state thermal analysis is carried out to determine the Simulation results listed in Tables 2 and 3 show that the
temperature distributions of the model. The results of maximum equivalent thermal stress is smaller than the

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 allowable stresses. The allowable stress is based on material Table 2. von-Mises stress distribution of components for
yield stresses ([σ]). frictional support case
von-Mises stress
Component [σ] MPa σe ≤ [σ]
(σe) MPa
Outlet nozzle 370.34 441 Yes
Inlet nozzle 246.68 441 Yes
Hot leg 291.16 295 Yes
Cold leg 228.20 295 Yes

Table 3. von-Mises stress distribution of components for

frictionless support case
Von-Mises stress
Component [σ] MPa σe ≤ [σ]
(σe) MPa
Outlet nozzle 366.90 441 Yes
Figure 5. Temperature distribution Inlet nozzle 250.18 441 Yes
Hot leg 284.92 295 Yes
Cold leg 224.51 295 Yes

The purpose of checking the stresses is to make sure the

material does not fail under the specified load. It is evident that
all the values are below the allowable stress, however stresses in
the hot leg pipe approaches yield stress. Consequently,
investigation of fatigue failure should be carried out for detailed
check of structural integrity.

· ELAVUATION OF LINEARIZED STRESS

Figure 6. Stress distributions for frictional support case
The linearized stresses calculate membrane (Pm), bending
(Pb), peak (Q), and total stress along a straight line. The results
are evaluated at discrete points along this path. The linearized
stress paths at the regions between reactor vessel outlet nozzle
and hot leg pipe, and between reactor vessel inlet nozzle and
cold leg pipe are set up to investigate detailed stress state in
these region. The construction geometry at reactor vessel outlet
nozzle for the frictional support case is shown in Figure 9.
The result of linearized stress at reactor vessel outlet nozzle
for Path 5 is shown in Figure 10. It can be seen that the
maximum bending stress occurred at the surface of the reactor
vessel outlet nozzle. Additionally, membrane stress is in
compression. This is a reasonable result since the maximum
equivalent thermal stress also occurred at this location as shown
in Figure 6. The maximum bending stress and maximum total
stress occurred at the outer surface, as shown in Figure 11. The
results of maximum bending stress, membrane stress, and peak
stress at the reactor vessel outlet nozzle for all the eight paths
defined are summarized in Table 4.

Figure 7. Stress distributions for frictionless support case

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 Table 4. Linearized stress at RV outlet nozzle for frictional
support case
Max. Max. Max.
Total
Linearized Membrane Bending Peak
Stress
Stress Path Stress stress stress
(MPa)
(MPa) (MPa) (MPa)
Linearized -122.87
-84.56 ±50.21 13.36
Stress Path 1
Linearized -136.19
-93.44 ±51.29 20.69
Stress Path 2
Linearized -158.56
-142.11 ±6.92 27.83
Stress Path 3
Linearized -124.67
-104.79 ±41.56 45.97
Stress Path 4
Figure 9. Construction geometry at reactor vessel outlet nozzle
for frictional support case Linearized -111.95
-82.31 ±40.26 28.46
Stress Path 5
Linearized -112.04
-84.76 ±39.82 26.28
Stress Path 6
Linearized -151.18
-118.78 ±27.16 35.60
Stress Path 7
Linearized -139.75
-114.92 ±20.65 26.02
Stress Path 8

Figure 10. Linearized stress at reactor vessel outlet nozzle for
Path 5
Figure 11. Graph of membrane stress, bending stress, peak
stress and total stress for linearized stress at Path 5 of reactor
vessel outlet nozzle
CONCLUSIONS
The analyses revealed that the maximum effective thermal
stresses always occur at the external surface or internal surface
of nozzles or piping ends. Consequently, the regions
surrounding the nozzles and hot leg piping ends are more easily
damaged. The equivalent thermal stresses are concentrated at
the regions where different component are connected.
Analysis was done for frictional support case where friction
coefficient was set at 0.3 and frictionless support cases, and the
result showed little difference in thermal stress for both cases.
From this result, it can be concluded that the friction at support
did not play a significant role in the thermal stress as the
support design originally intended. Hence the analysis
confirmed the VVER-1000 reactor support design was
appropriate.
The maximum equivalent stress in the hot leg nozzle
approaches material yield stress. This indicates that further
study on fatigue due to local stress concentration is needed. The
fatigue analysis requires reactor operational information and is
not treated in this study. In order to assess more accurately the
residual thermal stresses, hot-leg and cold-leg welding stress
analysis has to be combined with RCS residual thermal stress
analysis. The welding residual stress at hot-leg and cold-leg
nozzle region was not carried out in this work and left for future
study.

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 From these results, the designer will have an overview on
thermal stress distribution and understand that the friction on
supports would not change thermal stress much in the structure
for the VVER-1000 RCS during normal operation. This study
also presented how to model the whole VVER-1000 RCS
system, how to control and how to get good quality meshing for
the model in the ANSYS software. If data and information on
transient operating conditions are available, transient thermal
stress analysis can be performed as future research work.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Nguyen Truong Quang was awarded the complete financial
support including living allowances throughout the graduate
study from KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School and
he wishes to express the fullest gratitude toward KINGS for the
scholarships, and he also would like to express appreciation
toward prof. Ihn Namgung and fellow students for the guidance
and exchange of ideas.
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