초록
In recent years, the integrity of reactor Pressure Vessel(RPV) under pressurized thermal shock (PTS) accident has been treated as one of the most critical issues. Under PTS condition, the combination of thermal and mechanical stress by steep temperature gradient and internal pressure causes considerably high tensile stress at the inside of RPV wall. As a result, cracks on inner surface of RPV may experience elastic-plastic behavior which can be characterized by J-integral. In such a case, however, J-integral may possibly lose its vapidity due to the constraint effect. The degree of constraint effect is influenced by the loading mode, crack geometry and material properties. In this paper, in order to investigate the effect of clad thickness and crack geometry on constraint effect, three dimensional finite element analyses were performed for various surface cracks. Total of 27 crack geometries were analyzed and results were presented by a two-parameter characterization based on the J-integral and the f-stress.