• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1843-1853
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• 1996

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the crack stability of the nuclear main stresm pipes, considering the load reduction effect due to the presence of circumferential throuth-wall crack. Also, the optimization techniques are adoped tosimulate the crack effect on the elbow component of the piuping system. By using a general beam elemetn which contains a discontinuous cross-section, the piping analysis is accomplished to acquire the reduced load. Considering this reduced load, it is feasible for the LBB application in nuclear main stresm pipe. Also, by combining an optimization program and a genaral finite element analysis program, the appropriate dimensions of the simplified beam elemtn which represents the effect of crack in elbow could be successfully determined.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.1786-1795
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• 1997

In order to perform leak-before-break design of nuclear piping systems and integrity evaluation of reactor vessels, full stress-strain curves and fracture resistance (J-R) curves are required. However it is time-consuming and expensive to obtain J-R curves experimentally. The objective of this paper is to modify two J-R curve prediction methods previously proposed by the authors and to propose an additional J-R curve prediction method for nuclear piping materials. In the first method which is based on the elastic-plastic finite element analysis, a blunting region handling procedure is added to the existing method. In the second method which is based on the empirical equation, a revised general equation is proposed to apply to both carbon steel and stainless steel. Finally, in the third method, both full stress-strain curve and finite element analysis results are used for J-R curve prediction. A good agreement between the predicted results based on the proposed methods and the experimental ones is obtained.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.8 s.179
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• pp.2015-2021
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• 2000

In order to evaluate the integrity of nuclear power plant components, the analysis based on fracture mechanics is crucial. For this purpose, finite element method is popularly used to obtain J-integral. However, it is time consuming to design the finite element model of a cracked structure. Also, the J-integral should be verified by alternative methods since it may differ depending on the calculation method. The objective of this paper is to develop a three-dimensional elastic-plastic J-integral analysis system which is named as EPAS program. The EPAS program consists of an automatic mesh generator for a through-wall crack and a surface crack, a solver based on ABAQUS program, and a J-integral calculation program which provides DI (Domain Integral) and EDI (Equivalent Domain Integral) based J-integral calculation. Using the EPAS program, an optimized finite element model for a cracked structure can be generated and corresponding J-integral can be obtained subsequently.