Differential quadrature time element method for structural dynamics

An accurate and efficient differential quadrature time element method （DQTEM） is proposed for solving ordi- nary differential equations （ODEs）, the numerical dissipation and dispersion of DQTEM is much smaller than that of the direct integration method of single/multi steps. Two methods of imposing initial conditions are given, which avoids the tediousness when derivative initial conditions are imposed, and the numerical comparisons indicate that the first method, in which the analog equations of initial displacements and velocities are used to directly replace the differential quadra- ture （DQ） analog equations of ODEs at the first and the last sampling points, respectively, is much more accurate than the second method, in which the DQ analog equations of initial conditions are used to directly replace the DQ analog equations of ODEs at the first two sampling points. On the contrary to the conventional step-by-step direct integration schemes, the solutions at all sampling points can be obtained simultaneously by DQTEM, and generally, one differential quadrature time element may be enough for the whole time domain. Extensive numerical comparisons validate the effi- ciency and accuracy of the proposed method.

A Novel Computerized Water Level Control System of PWR Steam Generator of Nuclear Power Plant

This paper presents a novel method to solve old problem of water level control system of pressurized water reactor (PWR) steam generator (SG) of nuclear power plant (NPP) .The level control system of SG plays an important role which effects the reliablity,safty,cost of SG and its mathematical models have been solved.A model of the conventional controller is presented and the existing problems are discussed. A novel rule based realtime control technique is designed with a computerized water level control (CWLC) system for SG of PWR NPP.The performance of this is evaluated for full power reactor operating conditions by applying different transient conditions of SG′s data of Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant (QNPP).

Study on creep-fatigue damage evaluation for advanced 9%–12% chromium steels under stress controlled cycling

Creep-fatigue interaction is one of the main damage mechanisms in high temperature plants and their components. Assessment of creep-fatigue properties is of practical importance for design and operation of high temperature components. However, the standard evaluation techniques, i.e. time fraction rule and ductility exhaustion one have limitations in accounting for the effects of control mode on the cyclic deformations. It was found that conventional linear cumulative damage rule failed in accurately evaluating the creep-fatigue life under stress controlled condition. The calculated creep damages by time fraction rule were excessively high, which led to overly conservative prediction of failure lives. In the present study, it was suggested that such over estimation of creep damage was mainly caused by anelastic strain upon stress loading. For precise assessment under conditions of stress control, a modified creep damage model accounting for the effect of anelastic creep was proposed. The assessments of creep fatigue data under stress controlled condition were performed with the new approach developed in this paper for a rotor material and a boiler material used in ultra supercritical power plants. It was shown that a more moderate amount of creep damage was obtained by the new model, which gave better predictions of failure life.