Creep Analysis of Reactor Pressure Vessel Lower Head under Core Meltdown Severe Accident

During the core meltdown severe accident in the nuclear power plants, the strategy of In-Vessel Retention (IVR) to contain the melt in the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) is a key mitigation measure. During the implementation of IVR strategy, the RPV lower head is likely to fail due to excessive creep deformation under the combined action of extremely high temperature loads and mechanical loads. Therefore, it is necessary to perform the analysis of the creep deformation of the RPV lower head, to ensure the structural integrity of the RPV under the condition of melt retention. In this paper, under the assumption of IVR, the finite element method is used to perform the thermal-structural coupling analysis of the RPV lower head. The temperature and stress fields of the vessel wall, and the plasticity and creep deformation of the lower head are calculated. Combining the plasticity and creep rupture criteria, the failure was analyzed. Results show that the deformation of the structure will be greatly increased when creep is considered. During the IVR strategy under severe accident, the main failure mode of the RPV lower head is creep failure instead of plastic failure. Further analysis implies that the internal pressure has a significant influence on the creep deformation and failure time. This paper provides the method for the creep and failure analysis of the RPV lower head under severe accident. © 2019, Editorial Board of Journal of Nuclear Power Engineering. All right reserved.