Simulation of the nuclear fuel assembly drop test with LS-Dyna

Abstract Transportation of the nuclear fuel containing objects is especially sensitive to accidental drops, as any event, affecting the fuel spacial arrangement, alters also neutron multiplication factor and can result in uncontrolled chain reaction. The latter is particularly important for nuclear fuel being immersed in water. Apart from that, fall can result in a mechanical damage of the fuel rods, which can cause environmental pollution by radionuclides. Final and intermediate fuel configurations during the accident depend on the impact velocity and the angle between falling object and the surface. Experiments cannot cover all the possible variants of drops, as it would result in their unacceptable prices. Therefore elaboration of the approaches to numerically simulate such kind of accidents is an essential step in the nuclear fuel transportation safety analysis and is the principal goal of the present research. Series of drop tests with fuel assemblies (FA) models of different complexity have been performed and numerically simulated with LS-Dyna software in order to proof the reliability of such kind of analysis. The paper contains description of the drop test experimental facility, some experimental results and their numerical simulation. It has been found that the finite element model of the FA and the material properties used for the simulation provide reliable predictions of the FA materials deformation and failure in case of accidental drops onto a rigid surface.