Wear sleeve for control rod guide tube
AssigneeCombustion Engineering, Inc.
InventorAndrew J. Anthony
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A wear sleeve for a guide tube in a nuclear fuel assembly, and a method of installing the sleeve. The sleeve is an elongated metal cylinder having an upper portion adapted to be suspended from the upper end of the guide tube, and a lower portion adapted to be permanently deformed into interference fit with the walls of the guide tube whereby the sleeve may be secured against vertical movement. The method of installing the sleeve includes the steps of suspending the sleeve from the upper end of the guide tube, then expanding a selected lower surface of the sleeve until the sleeve is permanently deformed, whereby an interference fit between the sleeve and tube is formed.
Claims11
In a fuel assembly for a nuclear reactor, the reactor having a vertically reciprocable, cylindrical control rod driven from above the reactor core, the combination comprising:
- a metal guide tube for telescopingly receiving the control rod and for containing an upward flow of cooling liquid therein, the tube including stop means internal to the tube at the upper end thereof, wherein the portion of the tube facing the control rod tip when the control rod is in the withdrawn position is a critical region which may be subject to wear;
- and
- a wear sleeve suspended from the stop means and extending downward through the tube below the critical region, the sleeve being made of a thin-walled, ductile metal having an inner diameter larger than the control rod outer diameter, a portion of the sleeve below the critical region being permanently outwardly deformed into interference engagement with the tube whereby longitudinal movement of the sleeve relative to the tube due to the coolant flow is prevented.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.