• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.917-925
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• 2022

Steam generator (SG) tubes in a nuclear power plant can undergo rapid changes in pressure and temperature during an accident; thus, an accurate model to predict short-term creep damage is essential. The theta (𝜃) projection method has been widely used for modeling creep-strain behavior under constant stress. However, many creep test data are obtained under constant load, so creep rupture behavior under a constant load cannot be accurately simulated due to the different stress conditions. This paper proposes a novel methodology to obtain the creep curve under constant stress using a modified 𝜃 projection method that considers the increase in true stress during creep deformation in a constant-load creep test. The methodology is validated using finite element analysis, and the limitations of the methodology are also discussed. The paper also proposes a creep-strain model for alloy 690 as an SG material and a novel creep hardening rule we call the damage-fraction hardening rule. The creep hardening rule is applied to evaluate the creep rupture behavior of SG tubes. The results of this study show its great potential to evaluate the rupture behavior of an SG tube governed by creep deformation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1562-1570
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• 2003

The prediction of the inelastic behavior of the structure is an essential part of reliability assessment procedure, because most of the failures are induced by the inelastic deformation, such as creep and plastic deformation. During decades, there has been much progress in understanding of the inelastic behavior of the materials and a lot of inelastic constitutive equations have been developed. The complexity of these constitutive equations generally requires a stable and accurate numerical method. The radial return mapping is one of the most robust integration scheme currently used. Nonlinear kinematic hardening model of Armstrong-Fredrick type has recovery term and the direction of kinematic hardening increment is not parallel to that of plastic strain increment. In this case, The conventional radial return mapping method cannot be applied directly. In this investigation, we expanded the radial return mapping method to consider the nonlinear kinematic hardening model and implemented this integration scheme into ABAQUS by means of UMAT subroutine. The solution of the non-linear system of algebraic equations arising from time discretization with the generalized midpoint rule is determined using Newton method and bisection method. Using dynamic yield condition derived from linearization of flow rule, the integration scheme for elastoplastic and viscoplastic constitutive model was unified. Several numerical examples are considered to demonstrate the efficiency and applicability of the present method.