Estimates of Plastic Limit Loads of Thick-Walled Cylinders With Non-Idealzied Through-Wall Cracks

Author(s):  
Tae-Song Han ◽  
Nam-Su Huh ◽  
Do-Jun Shim

In order to assess a structural integrity of cracked components made of highly ductile material based on fully plastic fracture mechanics concept, an accurate plastic limit load of components of interest is crucial element. Such a plastic limit load can also be applied to estimate elastic-plastic J-integral based on the reference stress concept. In this context, during last several decades, many efforts have been made to suggest plastic limit load solutions of cracked cylinder. Recent works for evaluating rupture probabilities of nuclear piping indicate that the only use of idealized circumferential through-wall crack leads to very conservative results which in turn gives higher rupture probabilities of nuclear piping, thus the considerations of more realistic crack shape during crack growth due to primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) and fatigue and axial through-wall crack were recommended to come up with more realistic rupture probabilities of nuclear piping. Then, the needs of fracture mechanics parameters of non-idealized through-wall cracks both in axial and circumferential directions have been raised. In the present work, the plastic limit loads of thick-walled cylinder with non-idealized axial and circumferential through-wall cracks are proposed based on detailed 3-dimensional finite element analyses. The present results can be applied either to assess structural integrity of thick-walled nuclear piping with non-idealized through-wall cracks or to calculate elastic-plastic J-integral using the reference stress concept.

2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Doo-Ho Cho ◽  
Young-Hwan Choi ◽  
Nam-Su Huh ◽  
Do-Jun Shim ◽  
Jae-Boong Choi

The plastic limit load solutions for cylinder and plate with slanted through-wall cracks (TWCs) are developed based on the systematic three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) limit analyses. As for loading conditions, axial tension, global bending, and internal pressure are considered for a cylinder with slanted circumferential TWC, whereas, axial tension and internal pressure are considered for a plate and a cylinder with slanted axial TWC. Then, the verification of FE model and analysis procedure employed in the present numerical work was confirmed by employing the existing solutions for both cylinder and plate with idealized TWC. Also, the geometric variables of slanted TWC which can affect plastic limit loads were considered. Based on the systematic FE limit analysis results, the slant correction factors which represent the effect of slanted TWC on plastic limit load were provided as tabulated solutions. By adopting these slant correction factors, the plastic limit loads of slanted TWC can be directly estimated from existing solutions for idealized TWC. Furthermore, the modified engineering estimations of plastic limit loads for slanted TWC are proposed based on equilibrium equation and von Mises yield criterion. The present results can be applied either to diverse structural integrity assessments or for accurate estimation of fracture mechanics parameters such as J-integral, plastic crack opening displacement (COD) and C*-integral for slanted TWC based on the reference stress concept (Kim, et al., 2002, “Plastic Limit Pressure for Cracked Pipes Using Finite Element Limit Analyse,” Int. J. Pressure Vessels Piping, 79, pp. 321–330; Kim, et al., 2001, “Enhanced Reference Stress-Based J and Crack Opening Displacement Estimation Method for Leak-Before-Break Analysis and Comparison With GE/EPRI Method,” Fatigue Fract. Eng. Mater. Struct., 24, pp. 243–254; Kim, et al., 2002, “Non-Linear Fracture Mechanics Analyses of Part Circumferential Surface Cracked Pipes,” Int. J. Fract., 116, pp. 347–375.)


Author(s):  
Liwu Wei ◽  
Isabel Hadley

Fracture assessment diagram (FAD) based fracture assessment procedures are universally adopted by standards/documents including BS7910, R6, API579-1/ASME FFS-1 and FITNET. In the use of a FAD for structural integrity assessment, one important consideration is to determine the load ratio (Lr) which is defined by two equivalent definitions: Lr is either defined as the ratio of reference stress (σref) to yield strength (σY) as in BS7910, or as the ratio of applied load to plastic limit load as in R6. The solutions of reference stress or limit load are given in the assessment procedures for commonly encountered flawed structures such as a plate containing a surface crack and a cylinder containing an external surface crack. Although the solutions given in the various standards are not all the same, they were invariably derived on the basis of analysis of the force and moment equilibrium with regard to a flawed section and none of them has taken into account the effects of bi-axial stressing on a flawed section, thus leading to the likelihood of an overly conservative assessment. In this work, finite element analysis (FEA) of various flawed geometries (plate and cylinder containing surface cracks) was performed to compute plastic limit load, with the focus on understanding the effects of bi-axial stressing on plastic limit load. The geometries assessed include a plate with a surface crack subjected to both uni-axial and bi-axial loading, and a cylinder with circumferentially internal and external surface cracks sustaining a combination of axial loading and internal pressure. The investigation of these cases has demonstrated a significant increase in plastic limit load arising from bi-axial stressing. Comparison of the results of plastic limit load obtained from FEA with those derived from BS 7910 reference stress solutions was carried out to assess the extent of conservatism when the standard solutions are used in the applications containing bi-axial stresses. The implication for structural integrity assessment due to bi-axial stressing was also addressed. A comparison between BS 7910 Level 2B (material-specific FAD) and Level 3C (based on a FAD generated with FEA) procedures was also made and it was shown that whether the Level 3C procedure can reduce the conservatism in an assessment is dependent on individual cases.


2014 ◽  
Vol 881-883 ◽  
pp. 1412-1415
Author(s):  
Yan Qing Zhang ◽  
Zhong Xian Wang ◽  
Wei Xu

Elastic-plastic J-integral and plastic limit load were described by finite element (FE) analysis for single hole-edge crack in plate under far field biaxial load. In this paper, the effect of biaxial load ratio (from -1 to 1) on elastic-plastic J-integral and plastic limit load was studied, the values of coefficient h1 for J-integral engineering estimation formulas were given and the effect of material hardening on plastic limit load was discussed. The result obtained from this work provides reference for fracture evaluation, so it can be used in engineering accurately and expediently.


Author(s):  
Hyun-Min Jang ◽  
Doo-Ho Cho ◽  
Jae-Boong Choi ◽  
Young-Jin Kim ◽  
Nam-Su Huh ◽  
...  

Based on detailed three-dimensional (3-D) finite element (FE) limit analyses, the plastic limit load solutions for pipes with slanted circumferential through-wall cracks (TWCs) subjected to axial tension, global bending and internal pressure are reported. The FE model and analysis procedure employed in the present numerical study were validated by comparing the present FE results with existing solutions for plastic limit loads of pipes with idealized TWCs. To quantify the effect of slanted crack on plastic limit load, the slant correction factors for calculating plastic limit loads of pipes with slanted TWCs from pipes with idealized TWCs were newly proposed via extensive 3-D FE calculations. These slant correction factors are presented in a tabulated form for practical ranges of geometry and each loading conditions. Moreover, the present FE plastic limit loads were also compared with the existing solutions of pipes with slanted TWCs. These FE plastic limit load solutions can be applied to estimate elastic-plastic fracture mechanics parameters and creep fracture mechanics parameters, such as elastic-plastic J–integral and crack opening displacement, creep C*-integral and creep crack opening displacement, based on the reference stress concept considering more realistic crack shape.


Author(s):  
Heng Peng ◽  
Yinghua Liu

Abstract This paper carries out the shakedown and limit analysis of 45-degree piping elbows subjected to steady internal pressure and cyclic in-plane closing, opening and reverse bending moments by means of the recently proposed stress compensation method (SCM). Different geometries of the piping elbows and various combinations of these applied loads are investigated to create various shakedown limit and plastic limit load interaction curves. The plastic limit loads for single internal pressure and single bending moment calculated with the SCM are compared to those calculated with the twice-elastic-slope method. Full step-by-step elastic-plastic incremental finite element analyses are utilized to verify the structural cyclic responses on both sides of the curves obtained and further to confirm the correct shakedown limit loads and boundaries. It is shown that the SCM calculates the shakedown limit load accurately and possess more than 40 times the computational efficiency of the step-by-step elastic-plastic incremental method. The effects of the ratios of bending radius to mean radius and mean radius to wall thickness of the piping elbow as well as loading conditions on shakedown limit and plastic limit load interaction curves are presented. The results presented in this work provide a comprehensive understanding of long term response behaviors of the piping elbow under the combined cyclic loading and offer some essential points to be concerned for the design and integrity assessment of piping systems.


Author(s):  
Nam-Su Huh ◽  
Do-Jun Shim ◽  
Yun-Jae Kim ◽  
Young-Jin Kim

This paper presents experimental validation of two reference stress based methods for circumferential cracked pipes. One is the R6 method where the reference stress is defined by the plastic limit load. The other is the enhanced reference stress method, recently proposed by the authors, where the reference stress is defined by the optimized reference load. Using thirty-eight published pipe test data, the predicted maximum instability loads according to both methods are compared with the experimental ones for pipes with circumferential through-thickness cracks and with part circumferential surface cracks. It is found that the R6 method gives conservative estimates of the maximum loads for all cases. Ratios of the experimental maximum load to the predicted load range from 0.54 to 0.98. On the other hand, the proposed method gives overall closer maximum loads than R6, compared to the experimental data. However, for part through-thickness surface cracks, the estimated loads were slightly non-conservative for four cases, and possible reasons were fully discussed.


2009 ◽  
Vol 417-418 ◽  
pp. 45-48
Author(s):  
Holger Theilig ◽  
Dirk Holländer ◽  
Michael Wünsche

In this paper a higher order crack path simulation algorithm for multiple interacting cracks is presented using piecewise parabolic curved increments including the consideration of the plastic limit loads. For this reason, the program PCCS-2D has been extended to analyse the crack growth and the plastic limit load for each crack propagation step in a fully automatic simulation. The proposed solution algorithm provides a powerful tool for flaw assessment with the FAD proce¬dure in combination with a numerical crack path simulation. Several numerical examples are pre¬sented to show the accuracy and the efficiency of the crack path simulation including the analysis of the plastic limit loads


2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1263-1274 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.N. Skopinsky ◽  
N.A. Berkov ◽  
A.B. Smetankin

Abstract A new method and numerical procedure for determining the plastic limit load in an ellipsoid-cylinder intersection using the elastic-plastic finite element analysis are presented. The proposed method is based on the maximum criterion of the rate of change of the relative plastic work. For the elastic-plastic analysis of the nozzle connections the 2D finite element method and plasticity theory with strain hardening are used. The results of the comparison of the plastic limit pressure obtained on the basis of different known criteria and the proposed criterion are presented. A parametric study of ellipsoidal heads with a nozzle under internal pressure loading was performed. The effects of nondimensional geometric parameters of shell intersection on the plastic limit pressure are discussed.


Author(s):  
W. Reinhardt ◽  
X. Wang

The fracture mechanics evaluation of tubes and pipes with circumferential degradation typically requires that the plastic limit load capacity be evaluated under a combination of axial force and bending moment loading. Most available analytical solutions are thin-wall approximations and may not work well for heavy-wall applications. The present paper derives an analytical limit load for a cylindrical pipe or tube with a partial circumferential, partial through-wall flaw and its bounding cases (through wall partial circumferential and uniform circumferential part-throughwall flaw). The solution is not in closed form, but can be easily solved with available mathematical software like MathCAD. The obtained limit loads for a steam generator tube are compared to those from simplified analytical solutions. The effect of tube supports on the limit load of a tube with non-axisymmetric flaw is discussed with a simplified model.


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