HTGR Knowledge Base

Conference Article: Burst tests to measure the tangential strength of CFC tubes

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced composites (CFC) are considered as graphite/metal substitute material for certain structural components in modern HTR design. Internal pressure tests have been performed with tube segments made of CFC. The aim of the investigations was to value the failure of components under hoop stress and to compare the results to those obtained in relatively simple tests as split disk tests. The internal pressure was generated by gas and water. The main problem in the experiments was to prevent leakage at the end of the tubes without applying uncontrolled bending moments. Design methods supported by finite element calculations, helped to reduce these bending moments which could not be avoided totally however. Therefore the results of the burst tests must be considered as conservative. But compared to the split disk tests, the failure stress is twice as high as for the latter. Therefore it can be assumed, that for the given geometry, the split disk tests underestimate the tangential strength at least by a factor of two.

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Reference:

Specialists' meeting on the status of graphite development for gas cooled reactors. Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). 9-12 Sep 1991

International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)

IAEA-TECDOC--690, pp:59-63