Constitutive material model for the prediction of stresses in irradiated anisotropic graphite components

As well as acting as a moderator and reflector, graphite is used as a structural component in many gas-cooled fission nuclear reactors. Therefore the ability to predict the structural integrity of the many graphite components which make up a graphite reactor core is important in safety case assessments and reactor core life prediction. This involves the prediction of the service life stresses in the individual graphite components. In this paper a material model for the prediction of stresses in anisotropic graphite is presented. The time-integrated non-linear irradiated graphite material model can be used for stress analysis of graphite components subject to both fast neutron irradiation and radiolytic oxidation. As an example a simple stress analysis of a typical reactor graphite component is presented along with a series of sensitivity studies aimed at investigating the importance of the various material property changes involved in graphite component stress prediction.