Abstract
One important element of the Leak-Before-Break analysis of nuclear piping is how to determine relevant fracture toughness (or the J-resistance curve) for nonlinear fracture mechanics analysis. The practice to use fracture toughness from a standard C(T) specimen is known to often give conservative estimates of toughness. To improve the accuracy of predicting piping failure, this paper proposes a new method to determine fracture toughness using a nonstandard testing specimen, curved wide-plate in tension. To show validity of the proposed curved wide-plate test, the J-resistance curve from the full-scale pipe test is compared with that from the curved wide-plate test and that from C(T) specimen. It is shown that the J-resistance curve from the curved wide-plate tension test is similar to, but that from the C(T) specimen is lower than, the J-resistance curve from the full-scale pipe test. Further validation is performed by investigating crack-tip constraint conditions via detailed three-dimensional finite element analyses, which shows that the crack-tip constraint condition in the curved wide-plate tension specimen is indeed similar to that in the full-scale pipe under bending.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 419-425 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, Transactions of the ASME |
Volume | 126 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2004 Nov |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
- Mechanics of Materials
- Mechanical Engineering