Characterization of mechanical strain induced by lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) freezing in stainless steel cup.

Lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) is a candidate liquid metal coolant for a fast reactor, especially accelerator driven system (ADS). Freeze sealed valve is a candidate design to be possible to add passive safety to the reactor. On the other hand, since LBE is known that it causes expansion after its solidification, quantitative evaluation of the stress to the pipe produced by the LBE expansion should be considered. Many researchers produced related data for the expansion, however, evaluations of the strain by LBE expansion was barely reported. Therefore, the strain measurement using a stainless steel cup and the stress evaluation was performed together with visual observation using an optical microscopy. The results indicated keeping above room temperature (RT) was a significantly effective way to reduce the strain to the pipe.