DETERMINISTIC STRUCTURAL AND FRACTURE MECHANICS ANALYSES OF REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL FOR PRESSURIZED THERMAL SHOCK

摘要

The structural integrity of the reactor pressure vessel under pressurized thermal shock (PTS) is evaluated in this study. For given material properties and transient histories such as temperature and pressure ,the stress distribution is found and stress intensity factors are obtained for a wide range of crack sizes. The stress intensity factors are compared with the fracture toughness to check if cracking is expected to occur during the transient. A round robin problem of the PTS during a small break loss of coolant transient has been analyzed as a part of the international comparative assessment study, and the evaluation results are discussed. The maximum allowable nil-ductility transition temperatures are determined for various crack sizes.