Shakedown Analysis of Post-Weld Residual Stress in a Pressurizer Surge Nozzle Full-Scale Mockup

Author(s):  
Minh N. Tran ◽  
Michael R. Hill

Computational weld residual stress analyses are commonly evaluated at room temperature in order to validate against weld residual stress measurements, which are conducted at room temperature. However, in addition to weld residual stress produced in the course of manufacturing, plant components are subject to internal water pressure and elevated temperature during operation. The current work explores the changes in weld residual stress state due to the presence of internal pressure and temperature at operating conditions. This paper is a follow-up to earlier work, which presented a numerical finite element simulation of the weld residual stress in a pressurizer surge nozzle full-scale mockup as a part of a broader program of cooperative work on weld residual stress organized by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Electric Power Research Institute. The analysis is performed using two different constitutive hardening models (isotropic and nonlinear kinematic). Two main effects on the weld residual stress field result from the application of internal pressure and temperature: one is elastic, and reversible, and the other is plastic, which is irreversible. The results indicate that the majority of the change in plasticity, and hence the change in stress, occurs during the initial increase in internal pressure and temperature. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the additional stress due to operating conditions is largely due to the thermal expansion between the ferritic steel, stainless steel, and nickel-based alloy weld.

Author(s):  
Tao Zhang ◽  
F. W. Brust ◽  
Gery Wilkowski

Weld residual stresses in nuclear power plant can lead to cracking concerns caused by stress corrosion. These are large diameter thick wall pipe and nozzles. Many factors can lead to the development of the weld residual stresses and the distributions of the stress through the wall thickness can vary markedly. Hence, understanding the residual stress distribution is important to evaluate the reliability of pipe and nozzle joints with welds. This paper represents an examination of the weld residual stress distributions which occur in various different size nozzles. The detailed weld residual stress predictions for these nozzles are summarized. Many such weld residual stress solutions have been developed by the authors in the last five years. These distributions will be categorized and organized in this paper and general trends for the causes of the distributions will be established. The residual stress field can therefore feed into a crack growth analysis. The solutions are made using several different constitutive models such as kinematic hardening, isotropic hardening, and mixed hardening model. Necessary fabrication procedures such as repair, overlay and post weld heat treatment are also considered. Some general discussions and comments will conclude the paper.


Author(s):  
Mohamed R. Chebaro ◽  
Nader Yoosef-Ghodsi ◽  
David M. Norfleet ◽  
Jason H. Bergman ◽  
Aaron C. Sutton

Three pipeline sections containing defects of interest were non-destructively tested in the field, cut out and shipped to a structural laboratory to undergo full-scale testing. The common objectives of the experiments were to determine (1) the leak initiation pressure and (2) the leak rate at various specified internal pressures. While two spools (Specimens A and B) contained through-wall cracks, the third (Specimen C) had a partial through-wall crack with similar characteristics. The capacity of through-wall defects to withstand a level of internal pressure without leaking is due to the resultant local, compressive hoop residual stresses. Specimen C underwent full-scale pressure cycling to further comprehend the crack propagation mechanism in order to correlate it to field operation and analytical fatigue life predictions. To enhance the understanding of the physical crack behaviour as a function of internal pressure, a comprehensive finite element analysis (FEA) model was built using SIMULIA’s Abaqus software. The model inputs incorporated results from the above-mentioned laboratory tests, in addition to extensive radial, circumferential and axial residual stress measurements using the X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique, obtained on three pipe spools cut out from the same line. The resulting crack opening parameters from FEA were input into a closed-form fluid mechanics (FM) model, which was calibrated against a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, to determine the corresponding leak initiation pressures and leak rates. These outcomes were then compared to experimental findings. The FEA and FM models were subsequently employed to carry out a parametric study for plausible combinations of feature geometries, material properties, operational pressures and residual stresses to replicate field conditions. The key outcome from this study is the experimental and analytical demonstration that, for given fluid properties and pressures, the leak threshold and leak rate for through-wall cracks are primarily dependent upon the crack geometry and local residual stress distributions.


Author(s):  
Minh N. Tran ◽  
Ondrej Muránsky ◽  
Michael R. Hill ◽  
Mitchell D. Olson

In an effort to shed light on accuracy and reliability of finite element (FE) weld modeling outputs, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have been engaged in a program of cooperative research on weld residual stress (WRS) prediction. The current work presents numerical FE simulation of the WRS in a pressurizer surge nozzle full-scale mockup (Phase 2b), as a part of the broader NRC/EPRI program. Sequentially-coupled, thermo-mechanical FE analysis was performed, whereby the numerical solution from the thermal analysis was used as an input in the mechanical analysis. The thermal analysis made use of a dedicated weld modeling tool to accurately calibrate an ellipsoidal Gaussian volumetric heat source. The subsequent mechanical analysis utilized the isotropic and nonlinear kinematic hardening constitutive models to capture cyclic response of the material upon welding. The modeling results were then validated using a number of measurement techniques (deep hole drilling, contour method, slitting, and biaxial mapping). In addition, an effect of the interpass temperature (i.e. 24.5 °C, 150 °C, and 260 °C) on the final prediction of WRS is discussed.


2013 ◽  
Vol 772 ◽  
pp. 187-191
Author(s):  
Supriyo Ganguly ◽  
Andrew Wescott ◽  
T. Nagy ◽  
P. Colegrove ◽  
Stewart W. Williams

Local mechanical tensioning is one of the most efficient and industrially relevant stress engineering techniques to modify weld residual stress field and subsequently reduce buckling distortion. However, application of rolling load and its magnitude need to be optimised for an energy efficient rolling process. In the present study gas metal arc butt welded plates of low carbon mild steel were rolled by a dual roller in different rolling configuration (top and reverse side rolling) and with different magnitude of rolling load. All the plates were rolled post welding. Residual strain profiles of the post weld rolled plates were measured, using the SALSA strain scanner, and the in-plane stress were characterized. Average distortion of the rolled plates was correlated with the residual stress. Reverse rolling was found to be more effective in removing distortion while the stress profiles did not show any significant reduction of the peak stress.


Author(s):  
T. Sriskandarajah ◽  
Graeme Roberts ◽  
Daowu Zhou

A characteristic of pipeline installation by the reeling technique is the generation of high plastic strain around the majority of the pipeline’s circumference as it is spooled onto a drum, under displacement controlled conditions. It is well-known that the application of sufficiently high amounts of mechanical or thermal energy will “anneal” (relax) weld residual stresses and, therefore, under the gross plasticity experienced during reeling it should be expected that initial girth weld residual stresses will be entirely relaxed during the first reel cycle. The residual stress state needs to be taken into account in Engineering Critical Assessment (ECA) procedures of girth welds when predicting allowable defect dimensions. ECA codes such as DNV-OS-F101 and BS7910 assume the welding residual stress to be equal to the yield strength of the parent material and relaxation of welding residual stress under overload is allowed. However, the treatment specified in DNV is established from load-controlled scenarios and may result in un-realistic allowable defect dimensions in displacement-controlled situations such as reeling. Welding residual stress in reeling ECA is concerning to the subsea pipeline industry. By performing reeling simulations with 3D finite element analyses (FEA), this paper examines the welding residual stress before and after reeling and assesses the extent of residual stress relaxation. It was found that reeling axial strain causes significant relaxation of the weld residual stress at the pipe intrados and extrados. At the saddle points there is a slight disruption to the residual stress field. The full weld residual stress is relaxed from a value equal to the material yield stress, and is replaced by a plastic deformation induced stress of much lower magnitude, typically in the order of 100 MPa or less. The plastic deformation stress is of equal magnitude whether or not the pipe section contains initial weld residual stress and, therefore, it is concluded that weld residual stress can be ignored following the first reel cycle.


Author(s):  
Marina Q. Smith ◽  
Daniel P. Nicolella ◽  
Christopher J. Waldhart

The aging of pipeline infrastructures has increased concern for the integrity of pipelines exhibiting non-perforating wall loss and settlement induced bending. While pressure based guidelines exist which allow pipeline operators to define operational margins of safety against rupture (e.g.; ANSI/ASME B31-G and RSTRENG (Battelle, 1989)), reliable procedures for the prediction of wrinkling in degraded pipes subjected to combined loading are virtually non-existent. This paper describes full-scale testing and finite element investigations performed in support of the development of accurate wrinkling prediction procedures for the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. The procedures are applicable to corroded pipes subjected to combined loading such as longitudinal bending, internal pressure, and axial compression. During the test program, full-scale 48-inch diameter sections of the trans-Alaska pipeline were subjected to internal pressure and loads designed to simulate longitudinal bending from settlement, axial compression from the transport of hot oil, and the axial restraint present in buried pipe. Load magnitudes were designed based on normal and maximum operating conditions. Corrosion in the pipe section is simulated by mechanically reducing the wall thickness of the pipe. The size and depth of the thinned region is defined prior to each test, and attempts to bound the dimensions of depth, axial length, and hoop length for the general corrosion observed in-service. The analytical program utilizes finite element analyses that include the nonlinear anisotropic material behavior of the pipe steel through use of a multilinear kinematic hardening plasticity model. As in the tests, corrosion is simulated in the analyses by a section of reduced wall thickness, and loads and boundary constraints applied to the numerical model exactly emulate those applied in the full-scale tests. Verification of the model accuracy is established through a critical comparison of the simulated pipe structural behavior and the full-scale tests. Results of the comparisons show good correlation with measurements of the pipe curvature, deflections, and moment capacity at wrinkling. The validated analysis procedure is subsequently used to conduct parameter studies, the results of which complete a database of wrinkling conditions for a variety of corrosion sizes and loading conditions.


Author(s):  
Makoto Udagawa ◽  
Jinya Katsuyama ◽  
Kunio Onizawa

In order to assess the structural integrity of a reactor pressure vessel (RPV), it is assumed that a surface crack resides through the cladding at the inner surface of the vessel. It is, therefore, important to precisely evaluate stress intensity factor (SIF) under the residual stress field due to weld overlay cladding and post-weld heat treatment (PWHT). In this work, numerical simulation based on thermal-elastic-plastic-creep analysis using finite element method was performed to evaluate residual stress distribution near the cladding layer produced by weld overlay cladding and PWHT. The tensile residual stress of about 400 MPa occurs in the cladding at room temperature after the PWHT. The residual stress distributions under the normal operating conditions (system pressure and temperature) of RPV were also evaluated. The effect of residual stress and evaluation methods on SIF behavior for various crack size were studied under typical pressurized thermal shock (PTS) conditions such as small break loss of coolant accident (SBLOCA), main steam line break (MSLB) and large break loss of coolant accident (LBLOCA). It is clarified from comparison of this weld simulation with the other simple methods that SIF is affected by residual stress by weld overlay cladding and PWHT.


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