Tests and analyses of crack arrest in reactor vessel materials: Final report
This is the final report of EPRI Research Program RP 2180-3 performed for EPRI by Combustion Engineering, Inc. (C-E), Windsor, CT. A compact fracture test specimen was developed, and tests were performed to study crack propagation from an initial fatigue precrack in chilled reactor vessel grade steel, to arrest in warmer material of increasing toughness and rising stress intensity. The conditions necessary for crack arrest in high stress, high toughness conditions were determined by correlation of the test results to computer analyses. A simplified computer code was written which reproduces the test results. The specimens were manufactured from unirradiated nuclear reactor vessel grade steel, and the loads and toughness gradients in the tests simulated pressure and thermal loadings analogous to postulated pressurized thermal shock (PTS) conditions in irradiated vessels. Comparison of detailed dynamic elastic plastic finite element analyses and dynamic strain and displacement measurements of the crack extension, arrest and reinitiation events have led to a new understanding of the crack extension and arrest process. This understanding is shown to be applicable to the extension and arrest of cracks in pressure vessels and structures in general.
- Research Organization:
- Combustion Engineering, Inc., Windsor, CT (USA); Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6463227
- Report Number(s):
- EPRI-NP-5121M; ON: TI87920364
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Dynamic analyses of a crack run-arrest experiment in a nonisothermal plate
Crack arrest in an increasing K-field
Related Subjects
210200* -- Power Reactors
Nonbreeding
Light-Water Moderated
Nonboiling Water Cooled
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360103 -- Metals & Alloys-- Mechanical Properties
ALLOYS
COMMINUTION
CONTAINERS
CRACK PROPAGATION
CRACKS
DATA
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
FRACTURE MECHANICS
FRACTURING
INFORMATION
INTEGRALS
IRON ALLOYS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
IRRADIATION
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MECHANICS
MESH GENERATION
NUMERICAL DATA
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
PRESSURIZING
PWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTOR MATERIALS
REACTOR VESSELS
REACTORS
STEEL-ASTM-A533
STEELS
STRESS INTENSITY FACTORS
THERMAL FRACTURING
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS