Documentation of probabilistic fracture mechanics codes used for reactor pressure vessels subjected to pressurized thermal shock loading: Parts 1 and 2. Final report
- Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
Significant attention has been focused on the issue of reactor vessel pressurized thermal shock (PTS) for many years. Pressurized thermal shock transient events are characterized by a rapid cooldown at potentially high pressure levels that could lead to a reactor vessel integrity concern for some pressurized water reactors. As a result of regulatory and industry efforts in the early 1980`s, a probabilistic risk assessment methodology has been established to address this concern. Probabilistic fracture mechanics analyses are performed as part of this methodology to determine conditional probability of significant flaw extension for given pressurized thermal shock events. While recent industry efforts are underway to benchmark probabilistic fracture mechanics computer codes that are currently used by the nuclear industry, Part I of this report describes the comparison of two independent computer codes used at the time of the development of the original U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) pressurized thermal shock rule. The work that was originally performed in 1982 and 1983 to compare the U.S. NRC - VISA and Westinghouse (W) - PFM computer codes has been documented and is provided in Part I of this report. Part II of this report describes the results of more recent industry efforts to benchmark PFM computer codes used by the nuclear industry. This study was conducted as part of the USNRC-EPRI Coordinated Research Program for reviewing the technical basis for pressurized thermal shock (PTS) analyses of the reactor pressure vessel. The work focused on the probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) analysis codes and methods used to perform the PTS calculations. An in-depth review of the methodologies was performed to verify the accuracy and adequacy of the various different codes. The review was structured around a series of benchmark sample problems to provide a specific context for discussion and examination of the fracture mechanics methodology.
- Research Organization:
- Electric Power Research Inst. (EPRI), Palo Alto, CA (United States); Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 95193
- Report Number(s):
- EPRI-TR-105001; TRN: 95:018643
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Jun 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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