Fretting wear of laterally supported tube

The fretting wear of a tube, which is in contact with a lateral support, is examined experimentally. A fretting wear tester is specifically designed. Elastic springs are used as the support, which can simulate the contact between a spacer grid and a fuel rod in pressurized water reactor fuel. The tubes and the springs are made of Zircaloy-4. The experiments are conducted in air at room temperature. The experimental conditions, i.e. the normal and shear forces on the contact, the slip range and the number of cycles, are set to be the same. To investigate the influence of the contact geometry on the wear, the spring supports have a concave, a flat or a convex contour. The influence on the axial and transverse slip directions is investigated to incorporate the actual tube motion caused by such a flow-induced vibration in the reactor. The wear on the tube is examined by the surface roughness tester, which measures the depth, and the contour of the worn surface of the tube. Since the shape and the distribution of wear are found arbitrary, a method for evaluating the wear volume is proposed using the signal processing technique. It is found that wear can be restrained when the slip direction is transverse, and if the support has a concave contour.