Finite Element Creep Damage Analyses and Life Prediction of P91 Pipe Containing Local Wall Thinning Defect

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jilin Xue ◽  
Changyu Zhou

AbstractCreep continuum damage finite element (FE) analyses were performed for P91 steel pipe containing local wall thinning (LWT) defect subjected to monotonic internal pressure, monotonic bending moment and combined internal pressure and bending moment by orthogonal experimental design method. The creep damage lives of pipe containing LWT defect under different load conditions were obtained. Then, the creep damage life formulas were regressed based on the creep damage life results from FE method. At the same time a skeletal point rupture stress was found and used for life prediction which was compared with creep damage lives obtained by continuum damage analyses. From the results, the failure lives of pipe containing LWT defect can be obtained accurately by using skeletal point rupture stress method. Finally, the influence of LWT defect geometry was analysed, which indicated that relative defect depth was the most significant factor for creep damage lives of pipe containing LWT defect.

2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Do-Jun Shim ◽  
Jae-Boong Choi ◽  
Young-Jin Kim

Failure assessment of a pipe with local wall thinning draws increasing attention in the nuclear power plant industry. Although many guidelines have been developed and are used for assessing the integrity of a wall-thinned pipeline, most of these guidelines consider only pressure loading and thus neglect bending loading. As most pipelines in nuclear power plants are subjected to internal pressure and bending moment, an assessment procedure for locally wall-thinned pipeline subjected to combined loading is urgently needed. In this paper, three-dimensional finite element (FE) analyses are carried out to simulate full-scale pipe tests conducted for various shapes of wall-thinned area under internal pressure and bending moment. Maximum moments based on ultimate tensile stress were obtained from FE results to predict the failure of the pipe. These results are compared with test results, showing good agreement. Additional finite element analyses are then performed to investigate the effect of key parameters, such as wall-thinned depth, wall-thinned angle and wall-thinned length, on maximum moment. Moreover, the effect of internal pressure on maximum moment was investigated. Change of internal pressure did not show significant effect on the maximum moment.


2015 ◽  
Vol 750 ◽  
pp. 198-205
Author(s):  
Peng Cui ◽  
Chang Yu Zhou

The local wall thinning(LWT) is a kind of common volume defect in pressure pipe. The limit loads of elbows with LWT under pressure, bending moment, torque and their combined loads have been studied in detail by orthogonal experimental design and finite element method. The results have shown that the influence of depth and circumferential length of LWT on the limit load is more obvious compared to that of axial length when an elbow is under pressure, bending moment or torque. The change of limit bending moment and torque with the depth of LWT and circumferential length is significant for an elbow under combined bending moment and torque. At last, the safety assessment equations for elbow under combined in-plane closing bending moment and torque were proposed by regression analysis.


Author(s):  
Kunio Hasegawa ◽  
Yinsheng Li ◽  
Bostjan Bezensek ◽  
Phuong Hoang

Piping items in power plants may experience combined bending and torsion moments during operation. Currently, there is a lack of guidance in the ASME B&PV Code Section XI for combined loading modes including pressure, torsion and bending. Finite element analyses were conducted for 24-inch diameter Schedule 80 pipes with local wall thinning subjected to tensile and compressive stresses. Plastic collapse bending moments were calculated under constant torsion moments. From the calculation results, it can be seen that collapse bending moment for pipes with local thinning subjected to tensile stress is smaller than that subjected to compressive stress. In addition, equivalent moment is defined as the root the sum of the squares of the torsion and bending moments. It is found that the equivalent moments can be approximated with the pure bending moments, when the wall thinning length is equal or less than 7.73R·t for the wall thinning depth of 75% of the nominal thickness, where R is the mean radius and t is the wall thickness of the pipe.


2015 ◽  
Vol 750 ◽  
pp. 266-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Zhou ◽  
Xue Dong Chen ◽  
Zhi Chao Fan ◽  
Yi Chun Han

The creep behavior of 2.25Cr-1Mo-0.25V ferritic steel was investigated using a set of physically-based creep damage constitutive equations. The material constants were determined according to the creep experimental data, using an efficient genetic algorithm. The user-defined subroutine for creep damage evolution was developed based on the commercial finite element software ANSYS and its user programmable features (UPFs), and the numerical simulation of the stress distribution and the damage evolution of the semi V-type notched specimen during creep were studied. The results showed that the genetic algorithm is a very efficient optimization approach for the parameter identification of the creep damage constitutive equations, and finite element simulation based on continuum damage mechanics can be used to analyze and predict the creep damage evolution under multi-axial stress states.


Author(s):  
Takashi Ogata ◽  
Takayuki Sakai ◽  
Masatsugu Yaguchi

Clarification of creep damage mechanism and establishment of remaining life prediction methods of longitudinal welded piping of P91 steel are important subjects to maintain reliable operation of boilers in thermal power plants. Internal pressure creep tests were conducted on P91 steel longitudinal welded tubes to characterize the evolution of creep damage with time and to evaluate a life prediction method. Interrupted creep tests were utilized for damage observation in addition to rupture tests. Three dimensional FE creep analysis of the creep tested specimens were conducted to identify stress and creep strain distribution within the specimen during creep. Failure occurred at a heat affected zone without significant macroscopic deformation. It was found that initiation of creep voids had concentrated at mid-thickness region rather than surface. The creep analysis results indicated that triaxial tensile stress yielded at the mid-thickness region of the heat affected zone due to difference of creep deformation property between the base metal, heat affected zone and weld metal. It was suggested that the triaxial stress state caused acceleration of the creep damage evolution in the heat affected zone resulting in internal failure of the tube specimens. A rupture time prediction method of the welded tube is proposed based on the maximum principal stress and the triaxial stress factor. Void growth behavior in the heat affected zone was well predicted by the previously proposed void growth simulation method by introducing void initiation function to the method.


Author(s):  
Jin Weon Kim ◽  
Yeon Soo Na ◽  
Chi Yong Park

Local wall-thinning due to flow-accelerated corrosion is one of the degradation mechanisms of carbon steel piping in nuclear power plant (NPP). It is a main concern in carbon steel piping systems in terms of the safety and operability of the NPP. Recently, the integrity of piping components containing local wall-thinning has become more important for maintaining the reliability of a nuclear piping system, and has been the subject of several studies. However, although wall-thinning in pipe bends and elbows has been frequently reported, its effect on the integrity of pipe bends and elbows has not yet been systematically investigated. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the circumferential location of a local wall-thinning defect on the collapse behavior of an elbow. For this purpose, the present study used three-dimensional finite element analyses on a 90-degree elbow containing local wall-thinning at the crown of the bend region and evaluated the collapse moment of the wall-thinned elbow under various thinning geometries and loading conditions. The combined internal pressure and bending loads were considered as an applied load. Internal pressure of 0∼20 MPa and both closing-and opening-mode bending were applied. The results of the analyses showed that a reduction in the collapse moment of the elbow due to local wall-thinning was more significant when a defect was located at the crown than when a defect was located at the intrados and extrados. Also, the effect of the internal pressure on the collapse moment depended on the circumferential location of the thinning defect and mode of the bending load.


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