Heavy-Section Steel Technology Program. Quarterly progress report, January--March 1978

Technical Report · Tue Jun 20 04:00:00 EDT 1978

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6936379· OSTI ID:6936379

Whitman, G D; Bryan, R H

The Heavy-Section Steel Technology (HSST) Program is an engineering research activity conducted by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It comprises studies related to all areas of the technology of the materials fabricated into thick-section primary-coolant containment systems of light-water-cooled nuclear power reactors. The principal area of investigation is the behavior and structural integrity of steel pressure vessels containing cracklike flaws. Current work is organized into seven tasks: (1) program administration and procurement, (2) fracture mechanics analyses and investigations, (3) effect of high-temperature primary reactor water on subcritical crack growth of reactor vessel steels, (4) investigations of irradiated materials, (5) pressure vessel investigations, (6) thermal shock investigations, and (7) foreign research. Stress-intensity factors are being measured photoelastically for nozzle corner cracks out of the plane of the intersecting cylinder axes. The study of ramp- and hold-time effects in fatigue testing is continuing, and the influence of the environment on the apparent starting ..delta..K effect was investigated. Precracked Charpy specimens of irradiated weld metal with low ductile shelf toughness were tested in slow bending, and preparations for J-integral testing of larger specimens in this series are continuing. The machined portion of the flaw of vessel V-8 was completed and fatiguing of the notch was started. Further experimental studies of enhanced heat transfer for cryogenic thermal shock tests were made.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 6936379
• Report Number(s): ORNL/NUREG/TM-209; NUREG/CR-0106
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360103* -- Metals & Alloys-- Mechanical Properties
360106 -- Metals & Alloys-- Radiation Effects
ALLOYS
CHARPY TEST
CONTAINERS
COOLING SYSTEMS
CRACKS
IRON ALLOYS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
MATERIALS TESTING
PHYSICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
PRESSURE VESSELS
RADIATION EFFECTS
REACTOR MATERIALS
STEELS
TESTING
THERMAL SHOCK