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Local approach of cleavage fracture applied to a vessel with subclad flaw: A benchmark on computational simulation

Book ·
OSTI ID:403294
A cooperative action between EDF, CEA, Framatome and AEA Technology is in progress in the field of the local approach of cleavage fracture. In the frame of this collaboration, a benchmark on the computational simulation of a cladded vessel with a 6.2 mm subclad flaw submitted to a thermal transient has been conducted. Two-dimensional elastic and elastic-plastic finite element computations of the vessel have been performed by the different partners with respective finite element codes ASTER (EDF), CASTEM 2000 (CEA), SYSTUS (Framatome) and ABAQUS (AEA Technology). Main results have been compared: temperature field in the vessel, crack opening, opening stress at crack tips, stress intensity factor in cladding and base metal, Weibull stress {sigma}{sub w} and probability of failure in base metal, void growth rate R/R{sub 0} in cladding. This comparison shows an excellent agreement on main results, in particular on results obtained with local approach. Complementary numerical computations are also performed on a CT specimen and another cladded vessel with an 12.2 mm subclad flaw. A comparison between the CT specimen and the two cladded vessels is made using the local approach of cleavage fracture by the mean of Weibull stress {sigma}{sub w} versus stress intensity factor K{sub J}. This comparison shows significant differences, related to the a/W shallow flaw ratio. For a given level of the stress intensity factor, the probability of cleavage fracture increases with increasing flaw depth. The effect of a/W ratio on the probability of cleavage fracture is underlined.
OSTI ID:
403294
Report Number(s):
CONF-960706--; ISBN 0-7918-1771-7
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English