• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.409-416
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• 2009

Standard procedures for a fracture toughness testing require very severe restrictions for the specimen geometry to eliminate a size effect on the measured properties. Therefore, the used standard fracture toughness data results in the integrity assessment being irrationally conservative. However, a realistic fracture in general structures, such as in nuclear power plants, may develop under the low constraint condition of a large scale yielding with a shallow surface crack. In this paper, cleavage fracture toughness tests have been made on side-grooved PCVN (precracked charpy V-notch) type specimens (10 by 10 by 55 mm) with various crack depths. The constraint effects on the crack depth ratios were evaluated quantitatively by the developed scaling method using the 3-D finite element method. After the fracture toughness correction from scaling model, the statistical size effects were also corrected according to the standard ASTM E 1921 procedure. The results were evaluated through a comparison with the $T_0$ of the standard CT specimen. The corrected $T_0$ for all of the PCVN specimens showed a good agreement to within $5.4^{\circ}C$ regardless of the crack depth, while the averaged PCVN $T_0$ was $13.4^{\circ}C$ higher than the real CT test results.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.161-166
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• 2008

In general structures, cleavage fracture may develop under the low constraint condition of larger scale yielding with a shallow surface crack. However, standard procedures for fracture toughness testing require very severe restrictions of specimen geometry. So the standard fracture toughness data makes the integrity assessment irrationally conservative. In this paper, cleavage fracture toughness tests have been made on side-grooved PCVN (precracked charpy V-notch) type specimens (10 by 10 by 55 mm) with varying crack depth, The constraint effects on the crack depth ratios are quantitatively evaluated by scaling model and Weibull stress method using 3-D finite clement method, After correction of constraint loss due to shallow crack depths, the statistical size effect are also corrected according to the standard ASTM E 1921 procedure, The results snowed a good agreement in the geometry correction regardless of the crack size, while some over-corrections were observed in the corrected values of $T_0$.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.251-264
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• 1992

In this study, the size effect in measuring the fracture toughness of rock was investigated using the ISRM Suggested Method for Fracture toughness using Chevron Bend Specimens. Total 58 specimens were prepared with 4 different diameters, 29, 42, 54, 68mm and center cut-chevron notch. In addition to this, to evaluated the effect of anisotropy of Jecheon granite, which is the sample for this study, core drilling direction was adjusted perpendicular(short transverse) and parallel(arrester) to the rift plane in the sample and the measured fracture toughness for each direction were compared. Important results obtained from this study are as follows. Level ll test condition is more adequate than l, because of low data scattering and precision and corrected fracture toughness of Jechoen granite measured and 2.2MPa{{{{ SQRT { m} }}}} for arrester direction with minimum initial crack length 0.7cm. From the relationship between core diameter and initial crack length presented in the ISRM testing method, the specimen diameter should be bigger than 47mm. The fracture toughnesses measured for arrester and short transverse directon show 10% difference. This is to the anisotropy of Jecheon granite possessing rift plane.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.256-269
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• 2020

The objective of this study is to evaluate the stress thresholds in crack development and the corrected fracture toughness of KURT granite under dry and saturated conditions. The stress thresholds were identified by calculation of inelastic volumetric strain from an uniaxial compression test. The corrected fracture toughness was estimated by using the Level II method (Chevron Bend specimen), suggested by ISRM (1988), in which non-linear behaviors of rock was taken into account. Average crack initiation stress(σ_ci) and crack damage stress(σ_cd) under a dry condition were 91.1 MPa and 128.7 MPa. While, average crack initiation stress(σ_ci) and crack damage stress(σ_cd) under a saturated condition were 58.2 MPa and 68.2 MPa. The crack initiation stress and crack damage stress of saturated ones decreased 36% and 47% respectively compared to those of dry specimens. A decrease in crack damage stress is relatively larger than that of crack initiation stress under a saturated condition. This indicates that the unstable crack growth can be more easily generated because of the saturation effect of water compared to the dry condition. The average corrected fracture toughness of KURT granite was 0.811 MPa·m^0.5. While, the fracture toughness of saturated KURT granite(K_CB) was 0.620 MPa·m^0.5. The corrected fracture toughness of rock in saturated condition decreases by 23.5% compared to that in dry condition. It is found that the resistance to crack propagation decreases under the saturated geological condition.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1726-1746
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• 2022

This paper presents fracture mechanics analysis results for various cracks located at pressurized water reactor pressure vessel nozzle crotch corners taking into consideration constraint effect. Technical documents such as the ASME B&PV Code, Sec.XI were reviewed and then a fracture mechanics analysis procedure was proposed for structural integrity assessment of various nozzle crotch corner cracks under normal operation conditions considering the constraint effect. Linear elastic fracture mechanics analysis was performed by conducting finite element analysis with the proposed analysis procedure. Based on the evaluation results, elastic-plastic fracture mechanics analysis taking into account the constraint effect was performed only for the axial surface crack of the reactor pressure vessel outlet nozzle with cladding. The fracture mechanics analysis result shows that only the axial surface crack in the reactor pressure vessel outlet nozzle has the stress intensity factor exceeding the low bound of upper-shelf fracture toughness irrespectively of considering the constraint effect. It is confirmed that the J-integral for the axial crack of the outlet nozzle does not exceed the ductile crack initiation toughness. Hence, it can be ensured that the structural integrity of all the cracks is maintained during the normal operation.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.488-503
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• 1999

The present paper considers the constraint effect on J-R curves under the two-parameter $J-A_2$ controlled crack growth within a certain amount of crack extension. Since the parameter $A_2$ in $J-A_2$ three-term solution is independent of applied loading under fully plasticity or large-scale defor-mation $A_2$ is a proper constraint parameter uring crack extension. Both J and $A_2$ are used to char-acterize the resistance curves of ductile crack growth using J as the loading level and $A_2$ are used to char-acterize the resistance curves of ductile crack growth using J as the loading level and A2 as a con-straint parameter. Approach of the constraint-corrected J-R curve is proposed and a procedure of transferring the J-R curves determined from standard ASTM procedure to non-standard speci-mens or real cracked structures is outlined. The test data(e.g. initiation toughness JIC and tearing modulus $T_R$) of Joyce and Link(Engineer-ing Fracture Mechanics 1997, 57(4) : 431-446) for single-edge notched bend[SENB] specimen with from shallow to deep cracks is employed to demonstrate the efficiency of the present approach. The variation of $J_{IC}$ and $T_R$ with the constraint parameter $A_2$ is obtained and a con-straint-corrected J-R curves is constructed for the test material of HY80 steel. Comparisons show that the predicted J-R curves can very well match with the experimental data for both deep and shallow cracked specimens over a reasonably large amount of crack extension. Finally the present constraint-corrected J-R curve is used to predict the crack growth resistance curves for different fracture specimens. over a reasonably large amount of crack extension. Finally the present constraint-corrected J-R curve is used to predict the crack growth resistance curves for different fracture specimens. The constraint effects of specimen types and specimen sizes on the J-R curves can be easily obtained from the constrain-corrected J-R curves.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1924-1930
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• 2021

By using miniature SENB specimens, the fracture properties of the materials in the region of welded metal, 321 stainless steel heat affected zone, 690 alloy heat affected zone of 321/690 dissimilar metal girth welded joints were tested. Both the J-resistance curves and critical fracture toughness of the three different materials are affected by the crack size because of the effect of crack tip constraint. Groups of constraint corrected J-resistance curves of the three materials are obtained according to J-Q-M approach. The welded metals exhibit the best fracture resistance but the worst fracture resistance is observed in the material of 690 alloy heat affected zone.