Roger Y. Lu

TL;DR: A new approach for predicting GTRF induced fuel rod wear that uses high-resolution implicit large-eddy simulation to drive nonlinear transient dynamics computations and can be used to improve reactor core designs in which fuel rod failures are minimized or potentially eliminated.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used finite element analysis (FEA) to evaluate the hydraulic flow-induced impact intensity between the fuel rods and the spacer grids for grid-to-rod fretting wear mitigation.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors measured the wear coefficients of zirconium claddings without and with pre-oxidation rubbing against grid samples using a bench-scale fretting tribometer.

TL;DR: In this paper, a grid-to-Rod fretting (GTRF) wear is identified as one of the main causes of fuel rod leaking in pressurized water Reactors, and the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) has identified GTRF as a challenge that drives the requirement for the development and application of a modeling and simulation computational environment for predictive simulation of light water reactors.

TL;DR: In this article, a unique autoclave fretting test rig was designed and fabricated to allow studying grid-to-rod fretting (GTRF) using actual cladding and grid materials.