A study on the progressive inelastic deformation behavior of the 316 L stainless steel cylindrical structure with plate-to-shell junction under moving temperature front was carried out by structural test and analysis. The structural test intends to simulate the thermal ratcheting behavior occurring at the reactor baffle of the liquid metal reactor as free surface of hot sodium pool moves up and down under plant transients. The thermal ratchet load that heats the specimen up to 550$^{circ}C$ was applied repeatedly and residual deformation was measured. The thermal ratcheting test was carried out with two types of cylindrical structures, one with plate to-shell junction and the other without the junction to investigate the effects of the geometric discontinuities on the global ratcheting deformation. The temperature distributions of the test specimens were measured and were used for the ratcheting analysis. The ratchet deformations were analyzed with the constitutive equation of the non-linear combined hardening model. The analysis results were in good agreement with those of the structural tests.