Steam generating boilers in gas cooled nuclear reactors in the UK operate at high temperatures and some of them have been in service for more than 30 years and are now facing the challenges from long term operation extension demand. The tubular components experience surface metal losses due to exposure to oxidation and corrosive environment and as a result, some tubes suffer from restricted flow which may lead to an increased creep-fatigue crack initiation damage. To maintain or recover boiler heat transfer efficiency, internal chemical cleaning of selected boiler tubes is carried out, which introduces additional metal loss in the tube wall, weakening its load bearing capacity.
Some boiler components are subject to high temperature, pressure and mechanical loadings in large number of operating cycles through life, introducing creep in addition to cyclic fatigue damage.
In support of an operational safety case and plant long term operation extension requirements, structural integrity assessments have been carried out on a critical boiler component — bifurcation, taking into account tube wall metal loss for extended long term services, including the effects of possible future chemical cleaning operations.
This paper presents the finite element analyses and R5 Volume 2/3 assessment work carried out for the structural integrity substantiation of a stainless steel boiler tube bifurcation. The bifurcation is a tubular component subject to significant applied displacement due to long range thermal expansion of the neighbouring components. The initial study following normal industry practice using a decoupled analysis approach showed that the strain ranges obtained would exceed the creep-fatigue crack initiation capacity and plastic ratchetting would occur which would lead to short term, incremental plastic collapse, hence a safety case could not be made.
To meet the challenge, the analysis and assessment processes have been examined. A coupled FE analysis approach was used to remove the pessimism associated with the decoupled analysis approach. This approach captures the displacement-controlled nature of the system loads and allows a more realistic assessment. In addition, the plant life has been divided into a number of assessment periods such that the more realistic metal loss appropriate for each period could be used. Furthermore, segregated temperature zones have been considered in the assessment, leading to a significant reduction in the creep-fatigue crack initiation damage and a satisfactory extended long term operation safety case.
Local Approach : Numerical Simulations of Creep and Creep-Fatigue Crack Initiation and Crack Growth in 316L SPH Austenitic Stainless Steel
