Abstract
The Fracture evaluation is important in the structural integrity analysis of nuclear equipment which is subjected to the effects of neutron irradiation. The increment of ductile and brittle transition temperature is mainly due to the neutron irradiation, thermal ageing and strain ageing. In addition to above these factors, the high carbon macro-segregation of low-alloy steels also increases the risk of fast fracture failure as the carbon positive macro-segregation will lead to the increasing transition temperature of low-alloy steels. In this work, a relationship between the carbon content and the increment of transition temperature is developed and is used to the fast fracture failure analysis of the highest carbon content region in steam generator channel head. Results show that ratio between the calculated stress intensity factor considering safety coefficient suggested by ASME design code and the critical stress intensity factor is less than one, which indicates a safe design for the highest carbon content region in steam generator channel head.
