scholarly journals Development of a Water Environment Fatigue Design Curve for Austenitic Stainless Steels

Author(s):  
Thomas R. Leax

Technical support is provided for a fatigue curve that could potentially be incorporated into Section III of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. This fatigue curve conservatively accounts for the effects of light water reactor environments on the fatigue behavior of austenitic stainless steels. This paper presents the data, statistical methods, and basis for the design factors appropriate for Code applications. A discussion of the assumptions and methods used in design curve development is presented.

Author(s):  
Omesh K. Chopra

The ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code provides rules for the construction of nuclear power plant components and specifies fatigue design curves for structural materials. However, the effects of light water reactor (LWR) coolant environments are not explicitly addressed by the Code design curves. Existing fatigue strain–vs.–life (ε–N) data illustrate potentially significant effects of LWR coolant environments on the fatigue resistance of pressure vessel and piping steels. This paper reviews the existing fatigue ε–N data for austenitic stainless steels in LWR coolant environments. The effects of key material, loading, and environmental parameters, such as steel type, strain amplitude, strain rate, temperature, dissolved oxygen level in water, and flow rate, on the fatigue lives of these steels are summarized. Statistical models are presented for estimating the fatigue ε–N curves for austenitic stainless steels as a function of the material, loading, and environmental parameters. Two methods for incorporating environmental effects into the ASME Code fatigue evaluations are presented. Data available in the literature have been reviewed to evaluate the conservatism in the existing ASME Code fatigue design curves.


Author(s):  
Makoto Higuchi ◽  
Masahiro Takanashi ◽  
Ichiro Tamura ◽  
Toshiaki Takada

In 2007, the US NRC issued Regulatory Guide 1.207[1] and NUREG/CR-6909[2] for evaluating fatigue incorporating the life reduction due to the effects of light-water reactor environment for new reactors. NUREG/CR-6909 provides new design fatigue curves (DFC) for carbon, low-alloy and stainless steels which are different from those in the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section III[3] (2007 Edition). The design fatigue curves for carbon and low-alloy steels in NUREG/CR-6909 are higher than that for ferritic steels of which specified minimum tensile strength is 552 MPa (80 ksi) or less in the ASME Code Section III. The design fatigue curve for stainless steel in the ASME Code Section III was changed to the same curve as NUREG/CR-6909 in the 2009 Addenda. However, those for carbon and low-alloy steels are still different from the NUREG curves.


Author(s):  
Omesh K. Chopra ◽  
William J. Shack

The existing fatigue strain–vs.–life (ε–N) data illustrate potentially significant effects of light water reactor (LWR) coolant environments on the fatigue resistance of pressure vessel and piping steels. This paper reviews the existing fatigue ε–N data for carbon and low–alloy steels and austenitic stainless steels in LWR coolant environments. The effects of key material, loading, and environmental parameters, such as steel type, strain amplitude, strain rate, temperature, dissolved oxygen level in water, flow rate, surface finish, and heat-to-heat variation, on the fatigue lives of these steels are summarized. An updated version of the ANL statistical models is presented for estimating the fatigue ε–N curves for these steels as a function of the material, loading, and environmental parameters. The Fen (environmental fatigue correction factor) approach for incorporating the effects of LWR coolant environments into the fatigue evaluations of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Code is presented.


Author(s):  
Andrew Morley ◽  
Marius Twite ◽  
Norman Platts ◽  
Alec McLennan ◽  
Chris Currie

High temperature water environments typical of LWR operation are known to significantly reduce the fatigue life of reactor plant materials relative to air environments in laboratory studies. This environmental impact on fatigue life has led to the issue of US-NRC Regulatory Guide 1.207 [1] and supporting document NUREG/CR-6909 [2] which predicts significant environmental reduction in fatigue life (characterised by an environmental correction factor, Fen) for a range of actual and design basis transients. In the same report, a revision of the fatigue design curve for austenitic stainless steels and Ni-Cr-Fe alloys was proposed [2]. This was based on a revised mean curve fit to laboratory air data and revised design factors to account for effects not present in the test database, including the effect of rough surface finish. This revised fatigue design curve was endorsed by the NRC for new plant through Regulatory Guide 1.207 [1] and subsequently adopted by the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel (BPV) Code [3]. Additional rules for accounting for the effect of environment, such as the Fen approach, have been included in the ASME BPV Code as code cases such as Code Case N-792-1 [4]. However, there is a growing body of evidence [5] [6] [7] and [8] that a rough surface condition does not have the same impact in a high temperature water environment as in air. Therefore, application of Fen factors with this design curve may be unduly conservative as it implies a simple combination of the effects of rough surface and environment rather than an interaction. Explicit quantification of the interaction between surface finish and environment is the aim of a number of recent proposals for improvement to fatigue assessment methods, including a Rule in Probationary Phase in the RCC-M Code and a draft Code Case submitted to the ASME BPV Code as described in References [9] and [10]. These approaches aim to quantify the excessive conservatism in current methods due to this unrecognised interaction, describing this as an allowance for Fen effectively built into the design curve. A number of approaches in various stages of development and application are discussed further in a separate paper at this conference [11]. This paper reports the results of an extensive programme of strain-controlled fatigue testing, conducted on two heats of well-characterised 304-type material in a high-temperature simulated PWR environment by Wood plc. The baseline behaviour in environment of standard polished specimens is compared to that of specimens with a rough surface finish bounding normal plant component applications. The results reported here substantially add to the pool of data supporting the conclusion that surface finish effects in a high-temperature water environment are significantly lower than the factor of 2.0 to 3.5 assumed in construction of the current ASME III fatigue design curve. This supports the claim made in the methods discussed in [9] [10] and [11] that the fatigue design curve already incorporates additional conservatism for a high-temperature water environment that can be used to offset the Fen derived by the NUREG/CR-6909 methodology. At present, this observation is limited to austenitic stainless steels.


Author(s):  
Jussi Solin ◽  
Sven Reese ◽  
Wolfgang Mayinger

The new stainless steel air curve endorsed in NRC RG 1.207 for new US designs only was recently adopted into ASME III without restrictions on applicability. We assume that the new (2009b) ASME curve may be applicable to some grades of stainless steel, but not to all. This paper reports contradictory data for stabilized austenitic stainless steels extending up to 10 million cycles in room temperature at air environment. Niobium and titanium stabilized stainless steel specimens were sampled from 100% relevant material batches fabricated for NPP primary piping. Additional research and more recent data for titanium stabilized steel suggest that our PVP 2009-78138 conclusions are not limited to one material grade. Therefore, the revised ASME design curve cannot be considered universally applicable.


Author(s):  
William J. O’Donnell ◽  
William John O’Donnell ◽  
Thomas P. O’Donnell

The current fatigue design curve for austenitic stainless steels in the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code is known to be unconservative in certain fatigue regimes. This design curve was based on data which included cold worked material, and it allows cyclic stresses which are too high to satisfy code safety margins for annealed materials in these regimes. New fatigue design curves are proposed for air environments based on the existing worldwide database for annealed materials. Because of the differing properties of the range of materials covered by the current fatigue design curves, separate fatigue design curves are also proposed herein for Nickel Based Alloys (Alloy 600 and Alloy 800) in air. In addition, high temperature (> 360°F, 182°C) water has been found to accelerate fatigue crack propagation rates and to have a very deleterious effect on fatigue longevity in the low and intermediate cycle regimes. New fatigue design curves which include high temperature water environmental effects are proposed based on the extensive data developed by investigators worldwide.


Author(s):  
Seiji Asada ◽  
Takeshi Ogawa ◽  
Makoto Higuchi ◽  
Hiroshi Kanasaki ◽  
Yasukazu Takada

In order to develop new design fatigue curves for austenitic stainless steels, carbon steels and low alloy steels and a new design fatigue evaluation method that are rational and have a clear design basis, the Design Fatigue Curve (DFC) subcommittee was established in the Atomic Energy Research Committee in the Japan Welding Engineering Society. Mean stress effects for design fatigue curves are to be considered in the development of design fatigue curves. The Modified Goodman approach for mean stress effects is used in the design fatigue curves of the ASME B&PV Code. Tentative design fatigue curves were developed and studies on the effect of mean stress and design factors are on-going. Development of design fatigue curves, effect of mean stress and design factors is needed to establish a new fatigue design evaluation method. The DFC subcommittee has studied correction approaches for mean stress effects and the approaches of modified Goodman, Gerber, Peterson and Smith-Watson-Topper were compared using test data in literature. An appropriate approach for mean stress effects are discussed in this paper.


Author(s):  
G. Perez ◽  
C. Gourdin ◽  
S. Courtin ◽  
J. C. Le Roux

Fatigue lifetime assessment is essential in the design of structures. Under-estimated lifetime predictions may generate overly conservative usage factor values and hence result in unnecessary in-service inspections. In the framework of upgrading the fatigue design rules (RCC-M, RCC-MRx), the uniaxial reference fatigue curve was altered by taking into account effects like: Multiaxiality, Mean stress or strain, Surface roughness (polished or ground), Scale effect, Loading History... In addition to this effect, Environmentally Assisted Fatigue is also receiving nowadays an increased level of attention. To formally integrate these effects, some international codes have already proposed and suggested a modification of the austenitic stainless steels fatigue curve combined with a calculation of an environmental penalty factor, namely Fen, which has to be multiplied by the usual fatigue usage factor. The aim of this paper is to present a new device “FABIME2E” developed in the LISN in collaboration with EDF and AREVA. These new tests allow quantifying accurately the effect of PWR environment on semi-structure specimen. This new device combines the structural effect like equibiaxiality and mean strain and the environmental penalty effect with the use of PWR environment during the fatigue tests.


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