NESC-1 spinning cylinder experiment: Pre-test fracture analysis evaluation

Book · Sun Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:403292

Moinereau, D; Pitard-Bouet, J M ^[1]

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1. Electricite de France, Moret-sur-Loing (France). Dept. Mecanique et Technologie des Composants

The NESC project (Network for the Evaluation of Steel Components) has been started in Europe with fundings from European Community (EC) and Health and Safety Executive (HSE, UK). This project contains several aspects of the structural integrity assessment procedure and more specifically nondestructive examination, fracture mechanics and materials characterization. A first test is being planned at the AEA Technology Laboratories (Risley, UK) on the Spinning Cylinder test facility. The experiment will be conducted on a large scale cladded cylinder containing surface and subclad cracks exposed to a pressurized thermal shock transient (PTS). The main purpose of the test is to obtain the cleavage initiation in base metal. Within the framework of this project, a pre-test structural analysis evaluation has been conducted by Electricite de France (EDF) including several three dimensional elastic and elastic-plastic computations. Two cylinder geometries have been studied, the first one with a 40 mm deep semi-elliptical subclad flaw, the second with a 70 mm deep semi-elliptical subclad flaw in a thicker vessel. Higher values of the stress intensity factor are obtained in both geometries in the elastic-plastic computations due to the yielding of the cladding during the thermal transient. The comparisons between the stress intensity factors and the expected base metal toughness show that cleavage initiation must occur preferably in base metal near the interface with cladding. The comparison between both geometries show also that the thicker vessel with a deeper semi-elliptical subclad flaw (70 mm deep) is more favorable to cleavage initiation near the base metal-cladding interface.

• OSTI ID: 403292
• Report Number(s): CONF-960706--; ISBN 0-7918-1771-7
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
CRACK PROPAGATION
FRACTURE MECHANICS
FRACTURE PROPERTIES
NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTING
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
PRESSURE VESSELS
PROTECTIVE COATINGS
RELIABILITY
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
THEORETICAL DATA