Crack opening area estimates in pressurized through-wall cracked elbows under bending
One of the most important aspects in the leak-before-break approach is the estimation of the crack opening area corresponding to potential through-wall cracks at critical locations during plant operation. In order to provide a reasonable lower bound to the leak area under such loading conditions, numerous experimental and numerical programs have been developed in USA, U.K. and FRG and widely discussed in literature. This paper aims to extend these investigations on a class of pipe elbows characteristic of PWR main coolant piping. The paper is divided in three main parts. First, a new simplified estimation scheme for leakage area is described, based on the reference stress method. This approach mainly developed in U.K. and more recently in France provides a convenient way to account for the non-linear behavior of the material. Second, the method is carried out for circumferential through-wall cracks located in PWR elbows subjected to internal pressure. Finite element crack area results are presented and comparisons are made with our predictions. Finally, in the third part, the discussion is extended to elbows under combined pressure and in plane bending moment.
- Research Organization:
- US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Washington, DC (United States). Div. of Engineering Technology; Electricite de France (EDF), 69 - Villeurbanne (France); Battelle Memorial Inst., Columbus, OH (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 489325
- Report Number(s):
- NUREG/CP-0155; CONF-9510432-; ON: TI97004806; TRN: 97:011465
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Seminar on leak before break in reactor piping and vessels, Lyon (France), 9-11 Oct 1995; Other Information: PBD: Apr 1997; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the seminar on leak before break in reactor piping and vessels; Faidy, C. [ed.] [Electricite de France, Villeurbanne (France)]; Gilles, P. [ed.] [Framatome, Paris (France)]; PB: 773 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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