Experimental program to assess the effect of residual stresses on fracture behavior

Book · Wed Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:122640

Sharples, J K; Sanderson, D J; Bowdler, B R; Wightman, A P ^[1]; Ainsworth, R A ^[2]

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1. AEA Technology, Risley (United Kingdom). Technical Services Division
2. Nuclear Electric plc, Berkeley (United Kingdom)

A series of ``model material`` tests were previously undertaken on aluminium alloy tensile loaded plate specimens containing a central through-thickness crack to investigate the effect of in-plane self-balancing residual stresses on ductile tearing behavior in the context of the R6 methodology. Residual stresses were generated by an electron-beam welding method and this resulted in stress levels of the order of 1/3 yield stress in the test specimens. Provisional results of these tests were presented at the 1993 ASME PVP conference. The value of 1/3 yield is commonly considered as the level of residual stress for fracture assessments of structural components which have been stress relieved. For non stress relieved components, higher values of residual stress need to be considered. A new design of test specimen has therefore been developed. Further ductile tearing experiments have been undertaken on this new design of specimen. The results obtained from these, and the previous tests, have quantitatively demonstrated the influence of residual stress on fracture behavior in terms of both the level of residual stress and the region under consideration on the R6 failure assessment diagram. The general conservatism of the current R6 method for dealing with residual stresses has been confirmed for the type of geometry, loading and residual stress field under consideration.

• OSTI ID: 122640
• Report Number(s): CONF-950740--; ISBN 0-7918-1335-5
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ALUMINIUM ALLOYS
CALCULATION METHODS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FRACTURE MECHANICS
MATERIALS TESTING
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
REACTOR MATERIALS
RESIDUAL STRESSES
SAMPLE PREPARATION
STANDARDS
TENSILE PROPERTIES