Development of the buckling evaluation method for thick cylindrical vessels with a conical section in fast reactors made of austenitic stainless steel

Okafuji, Takashi*; Miura, Kazuhiro*; Sago, Hiromi*; Murakami, Hisatomo*; Watakabe, Tomoyoshi; Ando, Masanori ; Miyazaki, Masashi

The intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) and safety vessel in the demonstration reactor under design study in Japan are supposed to be designed a structure with a conical section as a transition member between cylinders with different diameters. However, the effect of the conical section on the buckling strength is not considered in both the current rules in the JSME and the proposed buckling evaluation method for cylinder structure. In this study, buckling mode and buckling load were confirmed by buckling tests of a cylindrical structure with conical section, and a buckling evaluation equation considering the effect of conical section was also examined.