Reactor core lifting equipment

• EquipmentThree-arm lifting frame with vessel interface
• DisciplineMechanical design and structural analysis
• Tools3D model, static structural FEA
• DeliverableDesign, verification and fabrication drawings

The challenge

Lifting a reactor core demands equipment that distributes load in a controlled way over the vessel interfaces and can be demonstrated, by calculation, within the margins nuclear lifting equipment regulations require.

Scope

• Solving the lifting problem: pick points, frame geometry and vessel interfaces
• Mechanical design of the three-arm frame and its joints
• Finite element structural analysis: equivalent stresses and safety factors
• Framing the design within the regulations applicable to lifting equipment in nuclear facilities
• Fabrication drawings and bill of materials

How we worked

From the problem to the equipment, not from the catalogue to the problem. The frame was defined from the actual core and vessel geometry, then verified.

Verification with documented margin. Every critical FEA zone is referenced to the governing code criterion.