Evaluation of Creep-Fatigue Damage for Prototype Process Heat Exchanger of the NHDD Plant

A process heat exchanger (PHE) transfers the heat generated from a nuclear reactor to a sulfur-iodine hydrogen production system in the NHDD (Nuclear Hydrogen Development and Demonstration), and was subjected to very high temperature up to 950°C. An evaluation of creep-fatigue damage, for a prototype PHE, has been carried out from finite element analysis with the full three dimensional model of the PHE. The inlet temperature in the primary side of the PHE was 950°C with an internal pressure of 7MPa while the inlet temperature in the secondary side of the PHE is 500°C with internal pressure of 4MPa. The candidate materials of the PHE were Alloy 617 and Hastelloy X. In this study, only the Alloy 617 was considered because the high temperature design code is available only for Alloy 617. Using the full 3D finite element analysis on the PHE model, creep-fatigue damage evaluation at very high temperature was carried out, according to the ASME Draft Code Case for Alloy 617, and technical issues in the draft Code Case were raised.