Static and stability analysis of the inner vessel of a fast breeder reactor

Liquid metal fast breeder nuclear reactors demand the usage of large sized thin shells for their reactor vessel components due to low operating pressure and high thermal load. Buckling is a very important aspect in the design of these vessels. In this article, analysis of the inner vessel of a typical 500 MWe fast breeder reactor is presented. Here, two different geometric configurations of the inner vessel are considered. One configuration is with the conical step joining the upper and the lower cylindrical portions, and the other is with the toroidal bottom joining the upper cylindrical part. The buckling strength of the vessel for both configurations are calculated and compared. Also, the effects of thermal load, initial geometric imperfection, geometric nonlinearity, etc. are investigated. The finite element method is used for analysis. © 1995.