Simplified Stress Intensity Factor Equation for SCC Propagation in the Pipe Welds (Step 2)

Author(s):  
Mayumi Ochi ◽  
Kiminobu Hojo ◽  
Kazuo Ogawa ◽  
Naoki Ogawa

Considering characteristics of PWSCC’s propagation behavior of the dissimilar welding joint of the safe end nozzles, an axial crack was modeled in a FE (Finite Element) model as a rectangular shape with larger aspect ratio. The stress intensity factors at the deepest point of the crack were calculated with change of crack depth. Using the influence coefficients, the simplified equation of stress intensity factor with parameters of radius/thickness and thickness/weld width was proposed. The contents of this paper is revised from the paper already presented [1] by further investigation for the shallow cracks with less than 20% thickness.

Author(s):  
Mayumi Ochi ◽  
Kiminobu Hojo ◽  
Itaru Muroya ◽  
Kazuo Ogawa

Alloy 600 weld joints have potential for primary water stress corrosion cracks (PWSCC). At the present time it has been understood that PWSCC generates and propagates in the Alloy 600 base metal and the Alloy 600 weld metal and there has been no observation of cracking the stainless and the low alloy steel. For the life time evaluation of the pipes or components the crack extension analysis is required. To perform the axial crack extension analysis the stress intensity database or estimation equation corresponding to the extension crack shape is needed. From the PWSCC extension nature mentioned above, stress intensity factors of the conventional handbooks are not suitable because most of them assume a semi-elliptical crack and the maximum aspect ratio crack depth/crack half length is one (The evaluation in this paper had been performed before API 579-1/ASME FFS was published). Normally, with the advance of crack extension in the thickness direction at the weld joint, the crack aspect ratio exceeds one and the K-value of the conventional handbook can not be applied. Even if those equations are applied, the result would be overestimated. In this paper, considering characteristics of PWSCC’s extension behavior in the welding material, the axial crack was modeled in the FE model as a rectangular shape and the stress intensity factors at the deepest point were calculated with change of crack depth. From the database of the stress intensity factors, the simplified equation of stress intensity factor with parameter of radius/thickness and thickness/weld width was proposed.


Author(s):  
Patrick Le Delliou ◽  
Stéphane Chapuliot

Analytical evaluation procedures for determining the acceptability of flaw detected during in-service inspection of nuclear power plant components are provided in Appendix 5.4 of the French RSE-M Code. Linear elastic fracture mechanics based evaluation procedures require calculation of the stress intensity factor (SIF). In Appendix 5.4 of the RSE-M Code, influence coefficients needed to compute the SIF are provided for a wide range of surface axial or circumferential flaws in cylinders, the through-wall stress field being represented by a cubic equation. On the other hand, Appendix C of API 579-1 FFS procedure provides also a very complete set of influence coefficients. The paper presents the comparison of the influence coefficients from both documents, focused on axial ID semi-elliptical surface flaws in cylinders. The cylinder and crack geometries are represented by three ratios: Ri/t, a/t, and a/c, where Ri, t, a, and c are respectively the inner radius, the wall thickness, the crack depth and one-half of the crack length. The solutions for the coefficients G0 and G1 at the deepest point and at the surface point are investigated. At the deepest point, the agreement between the solutions is good, the relative difference being lower than 2 %, except for the plate (Ri/t = ∞) at a/c = 0.125 and 0.0625 and a/t = 0.8 (around 5 %). At the surface point, the agreement between both solutions is not so good. At this point, the relative differences depend strongly on the a/c ratio, being larger for elongated cracks (with low a/c ratios). However, it must be recalled that the absolute values of the coefficients are low at the surface point for elongated cracks, and that for these cracks the critical point regarding the stress intensity factor is the deepest point.


Author(s):  
Steven X. Xu ◽  
Darrell R. Lee ◽  
Douglas A. Scarth ◽  
Russell C. Cipolla

Article A-3000 of Appendix A in Section XI of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code provides linear elastic fracture mechanics based calculation procedures for the determination of stress intensity factors. The 2015 Edition of ASME Section XI implements a number of significant improvements in Article A-3000. Major improvements include the implementation of an alternate method for calculation of the stress intensity factor for a surface flaw that makes explicit use of the Universal Weight Function Method and does not require a polynomial fit to the actual stress distribution, and the inclusion of closed-form equations for stress intensity factor influence coefficients for circumferential ID surface cracks. With the inclusion of the explicit weight function approach and the closed-form relations for influence coefficients, the procedures of Appendix A for the calculation of stress intensity factors can be used more efficiently. Closed-form equations for stress intensity factor influence coefficients for axial ID surface cracks have been under development. Tabular data of influence coefficients for the cylinder geometry provided in API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 2007 are used as data source. A set of closed-formed equations for an axial semi-elliptical ID surface crack with depth a and length 2c in a cylinder were previously reported in a 2014 PVP paper. The smallest value for a/c is 0.03125 in the tabular data that were used to fit the equations. For practical applications, it is desirable to use axial flaw equations that allow a/c to approach zero without extrapolation. This issue is addressed in the current PVP paper.


1982 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 293-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. S. Raju ◽  
J. C. Newman

The purpose of this paper is to present stress-intensity factor influence coefficients for a wide range of semi-elliptical surface cracks on the inside or outside of a cylinder. The crack surfaces were subjected to four stress distributions: uniform, linear, quadratic, and cubic. These four solutions can be superimposed to obtain stress-intensity factor solutions for other stress distributions, such as those caused by internal pressure and by thermal shock. The results for internal pressure are given herein. The ratio of crack depth to crack length from 0.2 to 1; the ratio of crack depth to wall thickness ranged from 0.2 to 0.8; and the ratio of wall thickness to vessel radius was 0.1 or 0.25. The stress-intensity factors were calculated by a three-dimensional finite-element method. The finite-element models employ singularity elements along the crack front and linear-strain elements elsewhere. The models had about 6500 degrees of freedom. The stress-intensity factors were evaluated from a nodal-force method. The present results were also compared to other analyses of surface cracks in cylinders. The results from a boundary-integral equation method agreed well (±2 percent), and those from other finite-element methods agreed fairly well (±10 percent) with the present results.


Author(s):  
Zheng Liu ◽  
Xu Chen ◽  
Xin Wang

In the present paper, three-dimensional clamped SENT specimens, which is one of the most widely used low-constraint and less-conservative specimen, are analyzed by using a crack compliance analysis approach and extensive finite element analysis. Considering the test standard (BS8571) recommended specimen sizes, the daylight to width ratio, H/W, is 10.0, the relative crack depth, a/W, is varied by 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 or 0.6 and the relative plate thickness, B/W, is chosen by 1.0, 2.0 or 4.0, respectively. Complete solutions of fracture mechanics parameters, including stress intensity factor (K), in-plane T-stress (T11) and out-of-plane T-stress (T33) are calculated, and the results obtained from above two methods have a good agreement. Moreover, the combination of the effects of a/W and B/W on the stress intensity factor K, T11 and T33 stress are thus illustrated.


Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Coêlho ◽  
Antonio Silva ◽  
Marco Santos ◽  
Antonio Lima ◽  
Neilor Santos

The purpose of this research is to compare both British standard BS 7910 (2013) and American standard API 579/ASME FFS-1 (2016) stress intensity factor (SIF) solutions by considering a series of semielliptical surface cracks located in the external surface of a pressurized hollow cylinder in the axial direction. Finite element analysis was used as a comparison basis for both standards’ SIF results. The solution from the British standard provided consistent results compared to Finite Element (FE) results for crack depth not much higher than half the thickness in the deepest and surface-breaking points. Above those limits, the British standard’s solutions diverged quite a lot from the American standard, whose results followed FE values for every crack depth/thickness ratio tested with a maximum percentage difference of 1.83%.


Author(s):  
D. J. Shim ◽  
S. Tang ◽  
T. J. Kim ◽  
N. S. Huh

Stress intensity factor solutions are readily available for flaws found in pipe to pipe welds or shell to shell welds (i.e., circumferential/axial crack in cylinder). In some situations, flaws can be detected in locations where an appropriate crack model is not readily available. For instance, there are no practical stress intensity factor solutions for circular-arc cracks which can form in circular welds (e.g., nozzle to vessel shell welds and storage cask closure welds). In this paper, stress intensity factors for circular-arc cracks in finite plates were calculated using finite element analysis. As a first step, stress intensity factors for circular-arc through-wall crack under uniform tension and crack face pressure were calculated. These results were compared with the analytical solutions which showed reasonable agreement. Then, stress intensity factors were calculated for circular-arc semi-elliptical surface cracks under the lateral and crack face pressure loading conditions. Lastly, to investigate the applicability of straight crack solutions for circular-arc cracks, stress intensity factors for circular-arc and straight cracks (both through-wall and surface cracks) were compared.


Author(s):  
Igor Orynyak ◽  
Andrii Oryniak

The consideration of a geometrical nonlinearity is a common practice for the thin-walled structures. The relevance here are two well-known cases treated in ASME codes. First one is accounting for reduction of the pipe bends flexibility due to the inner pressure. The second one is the retarded increasing (and subsequent saturation) of additional local bending stress with increasing of inner pressure in a pipe with initial cross section form distortion. In both cases the rerounding effect and decreasing of local flexibilities take place. The crack can be treated as the concentrated flexibility and it is quite natural to expect that the stress intensity factor should grow nonlinearly with applied load. Two cases of SIF calculation for 1-D long axial surface crack in a pipe loaded by inner pressure are considered here: a) cross section has an ideal circular form: b) the form has a small distortion and crack is located in the place of maximal additional bending stresses. The theoretical analysis is based on: a) the well known crack compliance method [1] and b) analytical linearized solution obtained for deformation of the curved beam in case of action of fixed circumferential stress due to pressure written in the form convenient for transfer matrix method application. It was shown that for moderately deep crack (crack depth to the wall thickness ratio is 0.5 and bigger) and typical dimensions of pipes used for oil and gas transportation (radius to thickness ratio is 25–40) and loading which can reach up to 200 to 300 MPa, the effect investigated can be quite noticeable and can lead to 5–15 percent reduction of calculated SIF as compared with linear calculation. The analytical results are supported by nonlinear FEM calculation.


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