THREE DIMENSIONAL FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATION OF THE FRETTING WEAR PROBLEMS
The structural integrity of steam generators in nuclear power plants is very much dependent upon the fretting wear characteristics of Inconel 690 U-tubes. In this study, a finite element analysis was used to investigate fretting wear on the secondary side of the steam generator, which arises from flow-induced vibrations (FIV) between the U-tubes and supports or foreign objects. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional finite element analyses were adopted to investigate the fretting wear problems. The purpose of the two-dimensional analysis, which simulated the contact between a punch and a plate, was to demonstrate the validity of using finite element analysis to analyze fretting wear problems. This was achieved by controlling the value of the wear constant and the number of cycles. The two-dimensional solutions obtained from this study were in good agreement with previous results reported by Strömberg. In the three-dimensional finite element analysis, a quarterly symmetric model was used to simulate tubes contacting at right angles. The results of the analyses showed donut-shaped wear along the contacting boundary, which is a typical feature of fretting wear.