Development of variable width ribbon heating elements for liquid metal and gas-cooled fast breeder reactor fuel rod simulators

Variable width ribbon heating elements have been fabricated which provide a chopped cosine, variable heat flux profile for fuel rod simulators used in test loops by the Breeder Reactor Program Thermal Hydraulic Out-of-Reactor Safety test facility and the Gas-Cooled Fast Breeder Reactor Core Flow Test Loop. Thermal, mechanical, and electrical design considerations result in the derivation of an analytical expression for the ribbon contours. From this, the ribbons are machined and wound on numerically controlled equipment. Postprocessing and inspection results in a wound, variable width ribbon with the precise dimensional, electrical, and mechanical properties needed for use in fuel pin simulators.