On the history and status of reactor pressure vessel steel ductile to brittle transition temperature shift prediction models

2019 ◽  
Vol 526 ◽  
pp. 151863 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.R. Odette ◽  
T. Yamamoto ◽  
T.J. Williams ◽  
R.K. Nanstad ◽  
C.A. English
Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (18) ◽  
pp. 5256
Author(s):  
Gábor Vértesy ◽  
Antal Gasparics ◽  
Ildikó Szenthe ◽  
Madalina Rabung ◽  
Melanie Kopp ◽  
...  

Nondestructive magnetic measurement methods can be successfully applied to determine the embrittlement of nuclear pressure vessel steel caused by neutron irradiation. It was found in previous works that reasonable correlation could be obtained between the nondestructively measured magnetic parameters and destructively determined ductile-to-brittle transition temperature. However, a large scatter of the measurement points was detected even in the cases of the non-irradiated reference samples. The reason for their scattering was attributed to the local inhomogeneity of material. This conclusion is verified in the present work by applying three different magnetic methods on two sets of Charpy samples made of two different reactor steel materials. It was found that by an optimal magnetic pre-selection of samples, a good, linear correlation can be found between magnetic parameters as well as the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature with low scattering of points. This result shows that neutron irradiation embrittlement depends very much on the local material properties.


Author(s):  
A. Parrot ◽  
P. Forget ◽  
A. Dahl

The monitoring of neutron induced embrittlement of nuclear power plants is provided using Charpy impact test in the surveillance program. However structural integrity assessments require the fracture toughness. Some empirical formulas have been developed but no direct relationship was found. The aim of our study is to determine the fracture toughness of a Reactor Pressure Vessel steel from instrumented Charpy impact test using local approach to fracture. This non-empirical method has been applied in the brittle domain as well as in the ductile to brittle transition for an A508 C1.3 steel. In the brittle domain, fracture occurs by cleavage and can be modeled with the Beremin model. Fracture toughness has been successfully determined from Charpy impact tests results and the influence of several parameters (mesh design, Beremin model with one or two parameters, number of Charpy impact tests results) on the results was considered. In the ductile to brittle transition, cleavage fracture is preceded by ductile crack growth. Ductile tearing has been accounted for in the simulations with the Rousselier model whereas cleavage fracture is still described with the Beremin model. The determination of fracture toughness from Charpy impact tests gave encouraging results but finite element simulations have to be refined in order to improve predictions.


Author(s):  
Hisashi Takamizawa ◽  
Yutaka Nishiyama ◽  
Takashi Hirano

Abstract The irradiation embrittlement of reactor pressure vessel steels can be predicted using the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) shift obtained from Charpy impact tests. For the structural integrity assessment considering irradiation embrittlement, it is necessary to set margins for various uncertainties. It is important to understand what and how much factors contribute to the uncertainty. In the present study, a 34% credible interval value of Charpy DBTT at a 41J energy level (T41J) was evaluated by estimating the probability distributions of Charpy test data using Bayesian statistics. To fit the Charpy transition curves, a hyperbolic tangent with coefficients whose uncertainties depend on the test temperature was used. The probability distribution of T41J was estimated using Monte Carlo sampling and Bayesian inference. It was clarified that 34% of the credible-interval values of T41J before and after irradiation unchanged for base and weld metals when the number of specimens and test temperature were equivalent under un-irradiated and irradiated conditions. When the Charpy transition curve was determined by 12 specimens loaded in a surveillance test capsule, the estimated uncertainty of T41J was about 5 °C.


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