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Title: Effects of off-centered crack and restraint of induced bending due to pressure on the crack-opening-area analysis of pipes

Book ·
OSTI ID:122604
; ; ;  [1]
  1. Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, OH (United States). Engineering Mechanics Group

Estimation of leak rate is an important element in developing leak-before-break (LBB) methodology for piping integrity and safety analysis of nuclear power plants. Here, current models for the crack-opening-area analysis of pipes with circumferential through-wall cracks are based on various idealizations or assumption which are often necessary to simplify the mathematical formulation and numerical calculation. This paper focuses on the validity of two such assumptions involving off-centered cracks and restraint of induced bending due to pressure and quantifies their effects on the crack-opening analysis of pipes. Both finite element and/or simple estimation methods were employed to compute the center-crack-opening displacement and crack-opening shape for a through-wall-cracked pipe considering off-centered cracks and restrain of induced bending due to pressure. The results of analyses show that for both cases the crack-opening area can be reduced significantly. For pipes with off-centered cracks, the crack-opening area can be evaluated from analyses of symmetrically centered cracks and assuming elliptical profile. For pipes with complete restraint of induced bending due to pressure, the reduction of crack-opening area depends on the crack size. When the crack size is small, the restraint effects can be ignored. However, when the crack size is larger, the restrained crack-opening can be significantly smaller than the unrestrained crack-opening depending on the length of pipe involved, and hence, may be important for the crack-opening-area and leak-rate analyses.

OSTI ID:
122604
Report Number(s):
CONF-950740-; ISBN 0-7918-1335-5; TRN: 95:024230
Resource Relation:
Conference: Joint American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)/Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) pressure vessels and piping conference, Honolulu, HI (United States), 23-27 Jul 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Fatigue and fracture mechanics in pressure vessels and piping. PVP-Volume 304; Mehta, H.S.; Wilkowski, G.; Takezono, S.; Bloom, J.; Yoon, K.; Aoki, S.; Rahman, S.; Nakamura, T.; Brust, F.; Yoshimura, S. [eds.]; PB: 594 p.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English