Defect Assessment for Integrity Evaluation of CANDU Pressure Tubes

CANDU 압력관 건전성평가를 위한 결함해석

The objective of this paper is to develop defect assessment technology for integrity evaluation of CANDU pressure tubes. In fracture mechanics analysis, three-dimensional and two-dimensional (line-spring model) finite element analyses were performed to obtain the stress intensity factor for axial and circumferential surface cracks. In leak before break (LBB) analysis, heat transfer analyses for through-wall cracks were performed by considering the cooling effect and the LBB application time was computed. It was shown that the analytical results obtained in this study provide less-conservative but accurate solution for defect assessment of CANDU pressure tubes.