The evolution of ceramic breeder pebble bed thermal creep deformation subjected to an external load and a differential thermal stress was studied using a modified discrete numerical code previously developed for the pebble bed thermomechanical evaluation. The rate change of creep deformation was modeled at the particle contact based on a diffusion creep mechanism. Numerical results of strain histories have shown lower values as compared to those of experimentally observed data at 740 degreesC using an activation energy of 180 kJ/mol. Calculations also show that, at this activation energy level, a particle bed at an elevated temperature of 800 degreesC may cause too much particle overlapping with a contact radius growth beyond 0.65 radius at a later time, when it is subjected to an external load of 6.3 MPa. Thus, by tracking the stress histories inside a breeder pebble bed the numerical simulation provides an indication of whether the bed may encounter an undesired condition under a typical operating condition. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. [References: 10]
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