Development of New Z-Factor for the Evaluation of Circumferential Surface Crack In Ferristic Steel Pipings

페라이틱 강 배관내의 원주방향 표면균열 평가를 위한 새로운 Z-Factor의 개발

The purpose of this paper is to develop new Z-Factors to evaluate the behavior of circumferential surface crack in ferritic steel piping including base metal and Submerged Arc Weld(SAW) metal in nuclear power plant. The Z-factor is a load multiplier to convert plastic load to elasto-plastic load. However the current Z-Factor is a load multiplier to convert plastic load to elasto-plastic load. However the current Z-Factor gives too conservative results. In this study, a J-estimation method, SC.TNP method, which is based on GE/EPRI expression, is used to develop new Z-Factors. The desirabilities of both the SC.TNP mehtod and the new Z-Factors are examined using the previous experimental results for the circumferential surface crack in ferritic steel pippings. The results are as follows ; (1) The SC.TNP mehtod is good for describing the circumferential surface crack behavior in farritic steel pipings, while the well-known R6 mehtod and DPFAD method give too conservative results. (2) The ASME-Z-Factor method using nwe Z-Factors well predicts the behavior of circumferential surface crack in ferritic steel pipings including base emtal and SAW metal.