• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.7-12
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• 2007

In order to evaluate the integrity of Zr-2.5Nb pressure tubes, probabilistic fracture mechanics(PFM) approach was employed. Failure assessment diagram(FAD), plastic collapses, and critical crack lengths(CCL) were used for evaluating the failure probability as failure criteria. The Kr-FAD as failure assessment diagram was used because fracture of pressure tubes occurred in brittle manner due to hydrogen embrittlement of material by deuterium fluence. The probabilistic integrity evaluation observed AECL procedures and used fracture toughness parameters of EPRI and recently announced theory. In conclusion, the probabilistic approach using the Kr-FAD made it possible to determine major failure criterion in the pressure tube integrity evaluation.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.667-670
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• 2001

For major structural components periodic inspections and integrity assessments are needed for the safety. However, many flaws are undetectable because sampling inspection is carried out during in-service inspection. Probabilistic integrity assessment is applied to take into consideration of uncertainty and variance of input parameters arise due to material properties and undetectable cracks. This paper describes a Probabilistic Fracture Mechanics(PEM) analysis based on the Monte Carlo(MC) algorithms. Taking a number of sampling data of probabilistic variables such as fracture toughness value, crack depth and aspect ratio of an initial surface crack, a MC simulation of failure judgement of samples is performed. For the verification of this analysis, a comparison study of th PFM analysis using a commercial code, mathematical method is carried out and a good agreement was observed between those results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.987-996
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• 2003

The structural integrity of the reactor vessel with the approaching end of life must be assured for pressurized thermal shock. The regulation specifies the screening criteria for this and requires that specific analysis be performed for the reactor vessel which is anticipated to exceed the screening criteria at the end of plant life. In case the screening criteria is exceeded by the deterministic analysis, probabilistic analysis must be performed to show that failure probability Is within the limit. In this study, probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis of the reactor vessel for pressurized thermal shock is performed and the effects of residual stress and master curve on the failure probability are investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.10 s.175
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• pp.137-143
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• 2005

The integrity of steam generator tubes in nuclear power plant should be maintained sufficiently during operation. For sake of this, complicated assessment procedures are required such as fracture mechanics analysis, etc. The integrity assessment of tubes has been performed by using conventional deterministic approaches while there are many uncertainties to carry out a rational evaluation. In this respect, probabilistic integrity assessment is considered as an alternative method for integrity assessment. The objectives of this study are to develop an integrity assessment system based on probabilistic fracture mechanics and to predict the failure probability of steam generator tubes containing an axial through-wall crack. The developed integrity assessment system consists of three evaluation modules, which apply first order reliability method, second order reliability method and Monte Carlo simulation method, respectively. The system has been applied to predict failure probability of steam generator tubes and the estimation results showed a promising applicability of the probabilistic integrity assessment system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.545-553
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• 2016

The failure probabilities of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) for low temperature over-pressurization (LTOP) and cool-down transients are calculated in this study. For the cool-down transient, a pressure-temperature limit curve is generated in accordance with Section XI, Appendix G of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) code, from which safety margin factors are deliberately removed for the probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis. Then, sensitivity analyses are conducted to understand the effects of some input parameters. For the LTOP transient, the failure of the RPV mostly occurs during the period of the abrupt pressure rise. For the cool-down transient, the decrease of the fracture toughness with temperature and time plays a main role in RPV failure at the end of the cool-down process. As expected, the failure probability increases with increasing fluence, Cu and Ni contents, and initial reference temperature-nil ductility transition ($RT_{NDT}$). The effect of warm prestressing on the vessel failure probability for LTOP is not significant because most of the failures happen before the stress intensity factor reaches the peak value while its effect reduces the failure probability by more than one order of magnitude for the cool-down transient.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.154-160
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• 2001

For major structural components periodic inspections and integrity assessments are needed for the safety. However, many flaws are undetectable because sampling inspection is carried out during in-service inspection. Probabilistic integrity assessment is applied to take into consideration of uncertainty and variance of input parameters arise due to material properties and undetectable cracks. This paper describes a Probabilistic Fracture Mechanics(PFM) analysis based on the Monte Carlo(MC) algorithms. Taking a number of sampling data of probabilistic variables such as fracture toughness value, crack depth and aspect ratio of an initial surface crack, a MC simulation of failure judgement of samples is performed. for the verification of this analysis, a comparison study of the PFM analysis using a commercial code, mathematical method is carried out and a good agreement was observed between those results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.653-659
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• 2002

This paper describes a probabilistic fracture mechanics(PFM) analysis based on Monte Carlo(MC) simulation. In the analysis of CANDU pressure tube, the depth and aspect ratio of an initial semi-elliptical surface crack, a fracture toughness value and delayed hydride cracking(DHC) velocity are assumed to be probabilistic variables. As an example, some failure probabilities of piping and CANDU pressure tube are calculated using MC method with the stratified sampling MC technique, taking analysis conditions of normal operations. In the stratified MC simulation, a sampling space of probabilistic variables is divided into a number of small cells. For the verification of analysis results, a comparison study of the PFM analysis using other commercial code is carried out and a good agreement was observed between those results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.2894-2901
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• 1994

Many researchers presented a probabilistic and statistical property of the material strength. However, the study on probabilistic and statistical property of fatigue fracture toughness has not been nearly presented. Major objectives in this paper are to compare the statistical test results of fatigue fracture toughness with those obtained in the tensile experiments, and to recognize the size effect for the probabilistic and statistical property by using specimens with various thickness.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.604-609
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• 2003

Flaw geometries, applied stress, and material properties are major input variables for the fracture mechanics analysis. Probabilistic approach can be applied for the consideration of uncertainties within these input variables. But probabilistic analysis requires many assumptions due to the lack of initial flaw distributions data. In this study correlations are examined between initial flaw distributions and in-service flaw distributions on structures under cyclic load. For the analysis, LEFM theories and Monte Carlo simulation are applied. Result shows that in-service flaw distributions are determined by initial flaw distributions rather than fatigue crack growth rate. So initial flaw distribution can be derived from in-service flaw distributions.