Influence of Material Parameters and Thermal Parameters on Sealing Performance of Reactor Pressure Vessel Under Heat Focusing Effect

Abstract

In this paper, an effective numerical model is established by combining the fluid–structure coupling and thermomechanical coupling methods to solve complex sealing problems of a reactor pressure vessel (RPV) test simulator under heat focusing effect. Some key factors are considered in the structure and thermal analysis, such as contact nonlinearity, high temperature elastic–plastic, and high temperature compression–resilience performance. The simulation results agree well with the data of test. An analysis is performed to study the effects of material and thermal parameters on sealing performance. The stress and deformation mechanism of bolt flange and gasket connection system is clarified.