• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.225-236
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• 2017

The purpose of this work is to predict ductile fracture of structural steel under extremely low cyclic loading experienced in earthquake. A cumulative damage model is proposed on the basis of an existing damage model originally aiming to predict fracture under monotonic loading. The cumulative damage model assumes that damage does not grow when stress triaxiality is below a threshold and fracture occurs when accumulated damage reach unit. The model was implemented in ABAQUS software. The cumulative damage model parameters for steel base metal, weld metal and heat affected zone were calibrated, respectively, through testing and finite element analyses of notched coupon specimens. The damage evolution law in the notched coupon specimens under different loads was compared. Finally, in order to examine the engineering applicability of the proposed model, the fracture performance of beam-column welded joints reported by previous researches was analyzed based on the cumulative damage model. The analysis results show that the cumulative damage model is able to successfully predict the cracking location, fracture process, the crack initiation life, and the total fatigue life of the joints.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.13-19
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• 2008

In order to predict a remaining life of a plant, it is necessary to select the components that are critical to the plant life. The remaining life of those components shall be evaluated by considering the aging effect of materials used as well as numerous factors. However, when evaluating reliability of nuclear structural components, some problems are quite formidable because of lack of information such as operating history, material property change and uncertainty in damage models. Accordingly, if structural integrity and safety are evaluated by the deterministic fracture mechanics approach, it is expected that the results obtained are too conservative to perform a rational evaluation of plant life. The probabilistic fracture mechanics approaches are regarded as appropriate methods to rationally evaluate the plant life since they can consider various uncertainties such as sizes and shapes of cracks and degradation of material strength due to the aging effects. The objective of this study is to evaluate the structural integrity for a reactor pressure vessel under the small break loss of coolant accident by applying the deterministic and probabilistic fracture mechanics. The deterministic fracture mechanics analysis was performed using the three dimensional finite element model. The probabilistic integrity analysis was based on the Monte Carlo simulation. The selected random variables are the neutron fluence on the vessel inside surface, the content of copper, nickel, and phosphorus in the reactor pressure vessel material, and initial RTNDT.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.601-609
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• 2012

Effect of different crack sizes on fracture criterion of some engineering materials was investigated in this work. Using finite element (FE) method coupled with a newly developed algorithm, J-integral values for different crack sizes were obtained for single-edge notched bend (SENB) and compact type (CT) specimen. Specimens with initial a/W ratio from 0.25 to 0.75 varying in crack size in steps of 0.125 were investigated. Several different materials, like 20MnMoNi55, 42CrMo4 and 50CrMo4, usually used in engineering structure, were investigated. For one of mentioned materials, numerical results were compared with experimental and their compatibility is visible.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.216-218
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• 2003

A fracture mechanics analysis methodology for stress corrosion cracks (SCCs) existing in the Alloy 600 nozzle weld joint for control rod drive mechanisms (CRDMs) of pressurized water reactor is studied. Effects of weld residual stresses on the sub-critical crack behavior during the reactor operation are investigated by a fracture mechanics analysis, which is combined with the finite element alternating method. It is found that effects f the residual stresses on the stress intensity factor (SIF) and crack growth rate (CGR) are dominant and values of SIF and CGR of cracks in the region of weld joint are increased by a factor of three or more on an average.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.5
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• pp.799-823
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• 2016

A finite element model for the non-linear dynamic analysis of a reinforced concrete (RC) containment shell of a nuclear power plant subjected to extreme loads such as impact and earthquake is presented in this work. The impact is modeled by using an uncoupled approach in which a load function is applied at the impact zone. The earthquake load is modeled by prescribing ground accelerations at the base of the structure. The nuclear containment is discretized spatially by using 20-node brick finite elements. The concrete in compression is modeled by using a modified $Dr{\ddot{u}}cker$-Prager elasto-plastic constitutive law where strain rate effects are considered. Cracking of concrete is modeled by using a smeared cracking approach where the tension-stiffening effect is included via a strain-softening rule. A model based on fracture mechanics, using the concept of constant fracture energy release, is used to relate the strain softening effect to the element size in order to guaranty mesh independency in the numerical prediction. The reinforcing bars are represented by incorporated membrane elements with a von Mises elasto-plastic law. Two benchmarks are used to verify the numerical implementation of the present model. Results are presented graphically in terms of displacement histories and cracking patterns. Finally, the influence of the shear transfer model used for cracked concrete as well as the effect due to a base slab incorporation in the numerical modeling are analyzed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.35-46
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• 2020

In this paper, a fracture mechanics evaluation system which can be used to assess the leak-before-break (LBB) of nuclear piping is developed. Existing solutions for calculating the fracture mechanics parameters (J-integral and crack opening displacement) required for LBB evaluation were firstly presented. Then a module for calculating J-integral and COD was developed, with an additional module for predicting the critical load based on the crack driving force diagram to finally develop a fracture mechanics evaluation system. To confirm the validity of the proposed evaluation system, finite element (FE) analysis was performed, and the FE J-integral and COD results were compared with prediction results using the J-integral and COD estimations program. Furthermore, the critical load assessment module was verified by comparing the actual pipe test results (Battelle test data) with prediction results using the proposed program.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.411-426
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• 2001

This paper treats the failure analysis of prestressing steel wires with different kinds of localised damage in the form of a surface defect (crack or notch) or as a mechanical action (transverse loads). From the microscopical point of view, the micromechanisms of fracture are shear dimples (associated with localised plasticity) in the case of the transverse loads and cleavage-like (related to a weakest-link fracture micromechanism) in the case of cracked wires. In the notched geometries the microscopic modes of fracture range from the ductile micro-void coalescence to the brittle cleavage, depending on the stress triaxiality in the vicinity of the notch tip. From the macroscopical point of view, fracture criteria are proposed as design criteria in damage tolerance analyses. The transverse load situation is solved by using an upper bound theorem of limit analysis in plasticity. The case of the cracked wire may be treated using fracture criteria in the framework of linear elastic fracture mechanics on the basis of a previous finite element computation of the stress intensity factor in the cracked cylinder. Notched geometries require the use of elastic-plastic fracture mechanics and numerical analysis of the stress-strain state at the failure situation. A fracture criterion is formulated on the basis of the critical value of the effective or equivalent stress in the Von Mises sense.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.904-913
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• 2002

In this paper, the dynamic stress intensity factors of fracture mechanics are numerically computed in time domain using the FEM. For which the finite element formulations are derived applying the Galerkin method to the equations of motion in convolution integral as has been presented in the previous paper. To assure the strain fields of r$^{-1}$ 2/ singularity near the crack tip, the triangular quarter-point singular elements are imbedded in the finite element mesh discretized by the isoparametric quadratic quadrilateral elements. Two-dimensional problems of the elastodynamic fracture mechanics under the impact load are solved and compared with the existing numerical and analytical solutions, being shown that numerical results of good accuracy are obtained by the presented method.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 1991

A new finite element technology based on the p-version of E.F.M. is discussed with reference to its potential for application to stress intensity factor computations in linear elastic fracture mechanics, especially cracked cylindrical shells. It is shown that the p-version model is far better suited for computing the stress intensity factors than the conventional h-version models with the help of three test problems. The main advantage of this technology is that the accuracy of approximation can be established without mesh refinement or the use of special procedures such as crack-tip element and mixed variational approach.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.7-12
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• 2004

A lifetime prediction of holddown spring screw in nuclear fuel assembly was performed using fracture mechanics approach. The spring screw was designed such that it was capable of sustaining the loads imposed by the initial tensile preload and operational loads. In order to investigate the cause of failure and to predict the stress corrosion cracking life of the screw, a stress analysis of the top nozzle spring assembly was done using finite element analysis. The elastic-plastic finite element analysis showed that the local stresses at the critical regions of head-shank fillet and thread root significantly exceeded than the yield strength of the screw material, resulting in local plastic deformation. Normalized stress intensity factors for PWSCC life prediction was proposed. Primary water stress corrosion cracking life of the Inconel 600 screw was predicted by using integration of the Scott model and resulted in 1.78 years, which was fairly close to the actual service life of the holddown spring screw.