Control Volume Finite Difference Analysis Of Thermal Stresses Induced In GHARR-1 Reactor Vessel By Coolant Heating

Control volume finite difference analysis of the transient temperature distributions and associated induced thermal stresses in Ghana Research Reactor-1 (GHARR-1) Reactor vessel due to coolant heating has beenmodelledto investigatethe structural integrity of thevessel after 20 years of operation. Theinduced thermal stresses within the thickness of the cylindrical reactor vessel were also solved analytically using Bessel transforms. Computational flow chart translating into numericalalgorithms wasdeveloped and implemented inMATLAB to generate data for analysis and simulations. Results obtained indicated that both temperature and thermal stress distributions were below the limits imposed by the vessel material composition (melting point of 933 K and allowable yield stress of 480 MPa). The low level of induced thermal stresses indicated that the structural integrity of the reactor vessel has been maintained to forestall the incidence of crack propagation and other premature failure modes over the operational period.