Analysis of Cladding Residual Stresses and their Influence on the Structural Reliability of LWR Pressure Vessel

THE WORK PRESENTED HERE GIVES AN ANALYSIS OF THE CLADDING RESIDUAL STRESS (CRS) AND OF ITS IMPORTANCE FOR THE REALISTIC (BEST-ESTIMATE) LIFE-TIME PREDICTION FOR NUCLEAR REACTOR PRESSURE VESSELS. THE ANALYSIS HAS BEEN BASED ON A SURVEY OF THE PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS, ON THE SPECIALLY PERFORMED OWN MEASUREMENTS (ON SPECIMENS, ON A 1/5 SCALE PWR NOZZLE AND ON A 1/5 SCALE PWR VESSEL), AND ON ANALYTICAL MODELS FOR STRESS ANALYSIS, FRACTURE MECHANICS AND LIFE-TIME PRE- DICTION. THE MEASUREMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE USING THE CENTRE-HOLE, AIR-ABRASIVE METHOD. THE STRESS ANALYSIS MODEL HAS BEEN BASED ON A FICTITIOUS TEMPERATURE FIELD (FOR THE CRS SIMULATION) AND ON THE ADINA AND BERSAFE FINITE ELEMENT CODES. THE FRACTURE MECHANICS ANALYSIS HAS BEEN PERFORMED ACCORDING TO THE VIRTUAL CRACK EXTENSION METHOD (J-INTEGRAL), WHILE THE COVASTOL COMPUTER CODE HAS BEEN USED FOR THE PROBABILISTIC LIFE-TIME PREDICTION. A HIGH (250 TO 400 MPA) CRS HAS BEEN DETERMINED, AND ITS IMPORTANCE FOR THE VESSEL INTEGRITY ESTIMATED QUANTIATIVELY.

LUCIA Alfredo;  DUJARDIN Roger; 

1995-03-15

JRC4183

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC4183,