• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.71-76
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• 2019

Actual stress distributions in the nozzle of a pressure vessel may not be in plane strain condition, implying that the crack-tip constraint condition may be relaxed in the nozzle. In this paper, a methodology for evaluating the fracture toughness of the ASME Code is presented considering the relaxation of the constraint effect in the nozzle of the reactor pressure vessel. The crack-tip constraint effect is quantified by the T-stress. The equation, which represent the relation between the fracture toughness in the lower constraint condition and the plane strain fracture toughness, is derived using the T-stress. This equation is similar to the method for evaluating the fracture toughness of the Master Curve for low constraint conditions. As a result of evaluating the fracture toughness considering the constraint effect in the reactor inlet, outlet and direct injection nozzles using the proposed equation, it was confirmed that the fracture toughness in the nozzles is higher than the plane strain fracture toughness. Applying the proposed evaluation methodology, it is possible to reflect the relaxation of the constraint effect in the nozzles of the reactor pressure vessel, therefore, the safe operation area on the pressure-temperature limit curve can be prevented from being excessively limited.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.3 s.246
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• pp.269-278
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• 2006

This paper proposes slip line fields for bending of unequally notched specimens in plane strain that have a sharp crack in one side and a sharp V-notch in the other side. Depending on the back angle, two slip line fields are proposed, from which the limit moment and crack tip stress fields are obtained as a function of the back angle. Excellent agreement between slip line field solutions with those from detailed finite element limit analysis based on non-hardening plasticity provides confidence in the proposed slip line fields. One interesting point is that, for the unequally notched specimen, the difference between the crack tip triaxial stress for tension and that for bending increases significantly with increasing the back angle. This suggests that such a specimen could be potentially useful to investigate the crack tip constraint effect on fracture toughness of materials. In this respect, the possibility of designing a new toughness testing specimen with varying crack tip constraint is discussed.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.1093-1101
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• 2002

Continuous fiber ceramic composites (CFCCs) have advantages over monolithic ceramics : Silicon Nitride composites are not well used for application because of their low fracture toughness and fracture strength, but CFCCs exhibit increased toughness for damage tolerance, and relatively high stiffness in spite of low specific weight. Thus it is important to characterize the fracture resistance and properties of new CFCCs materials. Tensile and flexural tests were carried out for mechanical properties and the fracture resistance behavior of a SCS6 fiber reinforced Si$_3$N$_4$ matrix CFCC was evaluated. The results indicated that CFCC composite exhibit a rising R curve behavior in flexural test. The fracture toughness was about 4.8 MPa$.$m$\^$1/2 , which resulted in a higher value of the fracture toughness because of fiber bridging. Mechanical properties as like the elastic modulus, proportional limit and the ultimate strength in a flexural test are greater than those in a tensile test. Also a numerical modeling of failure process was accomplished for a flexural test. This numerical results provided a good simulation of the cumulative fracture process of the fiber and matrix in CFCCs.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.40-46
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• 1999

Rotary bending fatigue tests were carried out to investigate the improvement of fatigue limit in annealed and austempered spheroidal graphite cast iron. Main results obtained are as follows. (1) The tensile strength(hardness) of Series C is higher than that of Series B, and fatigue limits are 245MPa in Series C, 230MPa in Series B and 195MPa in Series A, respectively. (2) The fatigue limits of Series B and Series A are mainly governed by the resistance to fatigue crack initiation. Whereas, the fatigue limit of Series C is governed by the resistance to fatigue crack initiation and growth. The defect size and the resistance to crack initiation and growth should be considered to clarify the fatigue properties in spheroidal graphite cast iron. (3) Improvement of fatigue limit by half-austempering is more reasonable than that of full-austempering treatment in multi defective materials as spheroidal graphite cast iron.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.5 s.248
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• pp.568-575
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• 2006

The present paper provides plastic limit load solutions of axial and circumferential through-wall cracked pipes based on detailed three-dimensional (3-D) finite element (FE) limit analysis using elastic-perfectly-plastic behavior. As a loading condition, axial tension, global bending moment, internal pressure, combined tension and bending and combined internal pressure and bending are considered for circumferential through-wall cracked pipes, while only internal pressure is considered for axial through-wall cracked pipes. Especially, more emphasis is given for through-wall cracked pipes subject to combined loading. Comparisons with existing solutions show a large discrepancy in short through-wall crack (both axial and circumferential) for internal pressure. In the case of combined loading, the FE limit analyses results show thickness effect on limit load solutions. Furthermore, the plastic limit load solution for circumferential through-wall cracked pipes under bending is applied to derive plastic $\eta\;and\;{\gamma}$-factor of testing circumferential through-wall cracked pipes to estimate fracture toughness. Being based on detailed 3-D FE limit analysis, the present solutions are believed to be meaningful fur structural integrity assessment of through-wall cracked pipes.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.44-54
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• 1989

This study was undertaken to evaluate the allowable welding heat input range for high strength steels manufactured by various processes and to compare the weldability of TMCP steel for high heat input welding with that of conventional Ti-added normalized steel. The allowable welding heat input ranges for conventional 50kg/$mm^2$ steel to guarantee D or E grade of ship structural steel were below 150 and 80kJ/cm respectively. Such a limit in welding heat input was closely related with the formation of undesirable microstructures, such as grain boundary ferrite and ferrite side plate in the coarse grain HAZ. In case of 60 and 80kg/$mm^2$ quenched and tempered steels, for securing toughness in weldments over toughness requirements for base metal, each welding heat input had to be restricted below 60 and 40kJ/cm, that was mainly due to coarsened polygonal ferrite in weld metal and lower temperature transformation products in coarse grain HAZ. The TMCP steel could be appropriate as a grade E ship hull steel up to 200kJ/cm, but the Ti-added normalized steel could be applied only below 130kJ/cm under the same rule. This difference was partly owing to whether uniform and fine intragranular ferrite microstructure was well developed in HAZ or not.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.443-448
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• 1997

Titanium carbonitride (Ti(CxN1-x)) ceramics were prepared by hot pressing of the mixture of TiN and graphite. Hot pressing was performed in a graphite mold at 198$0^{\circ}C$ for 40 min under 44 MPa in N2 atmosphere. The effect of graphite addition on sinterability and the mechanical properties of titanium carbonitride were investigated. In this study, the solubility limit of graphite in Ti(CxN1-x) was slightly below 10 wt% based on the results of XRD analysis. Within the solubility limit, graphite dissolved completely into titanium nitride and formed the single phase Ti(CxN1-x) solid solution. Peak relative density of 99% and hardness of 16 GPa were observed for Ti(CxN1-x) ceramics with 7 wt% graphite while maximum flexural strength of 500 MPa and fracture toughness of 4.0 MPa.m1/2 were observed for Ti(CxN1-x) ceramics with 10 wt% graphite. The electrical resistivities of the ceramics with 7 wt% and 10 wt% graphite were observed 40 {{{{ mu OMEGA }}cm and 50 {{{{ mu OMEGA }}cm respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

The integrity of the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) is affected by the neutrons bombarding the vessel wall leading to embrittlement. This irradiation-induced embrittlement leads to reduction in the fracture toughness of RPV materials. This paper presents a comparative study of typical Optimized Power Reactor (OPR)1000 reactor pressure-temperature (P-T) limit curves using the pre-2006 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) editions used in the power plant and the current ASME edition of 2010. The current ASME Code utilizes critical reference stress intensity factor based on the lower bound of static, while the Pre-2006 ASME editions are based the critical reference stress intensity factor based on the lower bound of static, dynamic and crack arrest. Model-Based Systems Engineering approach was used to evaluate ASME Code Section XI Appendix G for generating the P-T limit curves. The results obtained from this analysis indicate decrease in conservatism in P-T limit curves constructed using the current 2017 ASME code, which can potentially increase operational flexibility and plant safety. Hence it is recommended to use ASME code edition after 2006 be used in all operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) to establish P-T limit curve.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.34-39
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• 2016

This paper presents a method to quantify R-ratio effect on J-integral under large-amplitude cyclic loading condition. Generally, monotonic tearing resistance curves are used to assess stability of cracked nuclear piping under seismic loading. However, it is well known that fracture toughness decrease at cyclic loading condition, according to R-ratio. For this reason, it is important to quantify the J-R curves under cyclic loading condition. To quantify the R-ratio effect, correction method which was proposed by Tranchand is considered. This method considers crack opening area in order to calculate modified J-integral. This method leads to an increase of fracture toughness. At R=-0.5 case, this method is good agreement with monotonic J-R curves. However, results show that this method has a limit to apply a large R-ratio case.

• 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.