The study on the shrink-fit multi-ring flywheel with fall-off function

Structural integrity of the flywheel of reactor coolant pump is important for safe operation of a nuclear power plant. A shrink-fit multi-ring flywheel is designed with a fall-off function, i.e., it will separate from the shaft at a designed fall-off rotation speed, which is determined by the assembly process and the gravity. However, the two factors are ignored in the analytical method based on the Lame’s equation. In this work, we conducted fall-off experiments to analyze the two factors and used the experimental data to verify the validity of the analytical method and the finite element method (FEM). The results show that FEM performs better than the analytical method in designing the falloff function of the flywheel, though FEM cannot successfully predict the strain variation with the rotational speed.