scholarly journals Numerical modeling of the low cycle fatigue: effect of manufacturing imperfections caused by machining process

2021 ◽  
Vol 349 ◽  
pp. 02011
Author(s):  
Ikram Abarkan ◽  
Abdellatif Khamlichi ◽  
Rabee Shamass

The majority of mechanical components in nuclear power plants must be designed to withstand extreme cyclic loading conditions. In fact, when these components are subjected to low cycle fatigue, machining imperfections are considered one of the most significant factors limiting their service life. In the present work, using finite element analysis, a methodology has been suggested to predict the fatigue life of cylindrical parts made of 316 SS, at ambient temperature, under nominal strain amplitude ranging from ± 0.5 to ±1.2% with various surface roughness conditions. Two different multiaxial strain-life criteria have been considered to estimate the fatigue life, namely Brown-Miller and maximum shear strain. The comparison between the predicted and the experimental fatigue lifetimes has revealed that the adopted multiaxial strain life criteria can successfully estimate the fatigue life of 316 SS grade under uniaxial loading conditions. Furthermore, it has been found that the fatigue life decreases as the surface roughness average value increases, which indicates that surface regularities have a significant impact on low cycle fatigue life. Therefore, the proposed methodology is found to be capable of assessing the impact of surface roughness on the fatigue life of this specific steel in the low cycle fatigue regime.

Author(s):  
Jürgen Rudolph ◽  
Adrian Willuweit ◽  
Steffen Bergholz ◽  
Christian Philippek ◽  
Jevgenij Kobzarev

Components of conventional power plants are subject to potential damage mechanisms such as creep, fatigue and their combination. These mechanisms have to be considered in the mechanical design process. Against this general background — as an example — the paper focusses on the low cycle fatigue behavior of a main steam shut off valve. The first design check based on standard design rules and linear Finite Element Analysis (FEA) identifies fatigue sensitive locations and potentially high fatigue usage. This will often occur in the context of flexible operational modes of combined cycle power plants which are a characteristic of the current demands of energy supply. In such a case a margin analysis constitutes a logical second step. It may comprise the identification of a more realistic description of the real operational loads and load-time histories and a refinement of the (creep-) fatigue assessment methods. This constitutes the basis of an advanced component design and assessment. In this work, nonlinear FEA is applied based on a nonlinear kinematic constitutive material model, in order to simulate the thermo-mechanical behavior of the high-Cr steel component mentioned above. The required material parameters are identified based on data of the accessible reference literature and data from an own test series. The accompanying testing campaign was successfully concluded by a series of uniaxial thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) tests simulating the most critical load case of the component. This detailed and hybrid approach proved to be appropriate for ensuring the required lifetime period of the component.


Author(s):  
Jean Alain Le Duff ◽  
Andre´ Lefranc¸ois ◽  
Jean Philippe Vernot

During mid 2006, ANL issued a NUREG/CR-6909 [2] report that is now applicable in The US for evaluations of PWR environmental effects in the fatigue analysis of new reactor components. In order to assess the conservativeness of the application of this NUREG report, low cycle fatigue (LCF) tests were performed by AREVA NP on austenitic stainless steel specimens in a PWR environment. The selected material exhibits in an air environment a fatigue behavior consistent with the ANL reference “air” mean curve. Tests were performed for two various loading conditions: for fully reverse triangular signal (for comparison purpose with tests performed by other laboratories with same loading conditions) and complex signal, simulating strain variation for actual typical PWR thermal transients. Two surface finish conditions were tested: polished and ground. The paper presents on one side the comparison of environmental penalty factors (Fen = Nair,RT/Nwater) as observed experimentally with the ANL formulation (considering the strain integral method for complex loading), and, on the other hand, the actual fatigue life of the specimen with the fatigue life predicted through the NUREG/CR-6909 application. Low Cycle Fatigue test results obtained on austenitic stainless steel specimens in PWR environment with triangle waveforms at constant low strain rates gives Fen penalty factors close to those estimated using the ANL formulation (NUREG report 6909). On the contrary, it was observed that constant amplitude LCF test results obtained under complex signal reproducing an actual sequence of a cold and hot thermal shock exhibits significantly lower environmental effects when compared to the Fen penalty factor estimated on the basis of the ANL formulations. It appears that the application of the NUREG/CR-6909 [2] in conjunction with the Fen model proposed by ANL for austenitic stainless steel provides excessive margins whereas the current ASME approach seems sufficient to cover significant environmental effect for components.


2006 ◽  
Vol 326-328 ◽  
pp. 1011-1014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ill Seok Jeong ◽  
Sang Jai Kim ◽  
Taek Ho Song ◽  
Sung Yull Hong

For developing fatigue design curve of cast stainless steel that is used in piping material of nuclear power plants, a low-cycle fatigue test rig was built. It is capable of performing tests in pressurized high temperature water environment of PWR. Cylindrical solid fatigue specimens of CF8M were used for the strain-controlled environmental fatigue tests. Fatigue life was measured in terms of the number of cycles with the variation of strain amplitude at 0.04%/s strain rates. The disparity between target length and measured length of specimens was corrected by using finite element method. The corrected test results showed similar fatigue life trend with other previous results.


2014 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Warren Leigh

Pine plantations are prone to stem breakage due to high cyclic stress levels associated with hurricane force winds. Stress analytical and finite element simulation models were constructed of a representative profile of a (Sitka) Picea sitchensis tree. The profile surface stress (S) was determined due to the combined load of tree self-weight and hurricane wind speed. The results were complemented by reference to two other studies by other researchers that investigated the impact of fatigue cycles on failure (N) of pine wood and tree sway cycles to present a stem fatigue life prediction. The position of maximum surface profile stress and trunk fracture initiation location was ascertained from a non-uniform stress response. No stress uniformity along the trunk profile was observed for any wind-load case examined. The analytical model and finite element analysis of the P. sitchensis tree trunk profile revealed a statically adequate strength reserve factor of 1.4, which suggested another mode of failure was responsible. Fatigue life failure prediction was examined under cyclic and same-stress amplitude related to the hurricane wind speed of 33 m s-1. Predicted trunk fracture occurred in 2.6 hours, which dramatically reduced to two minutes with an increase in wind speed of only 1 m s-1. The calculated exposure time was similar to that recorded during Hurricane Hugo’s transit in 1989. The time-to-failure prediction obtained by the method of analysis provided in this study seemed plausible, and that the profile associated with the P. sitchensis tree would suffer trunk breakage by low cycle fatigue failure.


2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-98
Author(s):  
V. Šefl

Abstract In this literature review we identify and quantify the parameters influencing the low-cycle fatigue life of materials commonly used in nuclear power plants. The parameters are divided into several groups and individually described. The main groups are material properties, mode of cycling and environment parameters. The groups are further divided by the material type - some parameters influence only certain kind of material, e.g. sulfur content may decreases fatigue life of carbon steel, but is not relevant for austenitic stainless steel; austenitic stainless steel is more sensitive to concentration of dissolved oxygen in the environment compared to the carbon steel. The combination of parameters i.e. conjoint action of several detrimental parameters is discussed. It is also noted that for certain parameters to decrease fatigue life, it is necessary for other parameter to reach certain threshold value. Two different approaches have been suggested in literature to describe this complex problem - the Fen factor and development of new design fatigue curves. The threshold values and examples of commonly used relationships for calculation of fatigue lives are included. This work is valuable because it provides the reader with long-term literature review with focus on real effect of environmental parameters on fatigue life of nuclear power plant materials.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document