• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1588-1596
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• 2022

In the nuclear power plants, stainless steel is widely used for fabrication of various components such as piping and pipe fittings. These piping components are subjected to cyclic loading due to start up and shut down of the nuclear power plants. The application of cyclic loading may lead to initiation of crack at stress raiser locations such as nozzle to piping connection, crown of piping bends etc. of the piping system. Crack initiation can also take place from the flaws which have gone unnoticed during manufacturing. Therefore, prediction of crack initiation life would help in decision making with respect to plant operational life. The primary objective of the present study is to compile various analytical models to predict the crack initiation life of the pipes with notch. Here notch simulates the stress raisers in the piping system. As a part of the study, Coffin-Manson equations have been benchmarked to predict the crack initiation life of pipe with notch. Analytical models proposed by Zheng et al. [1], Singh et al. [2], Yang Dong et al. [25], Masayuki et al. [33] and Liu et al. [3] were compiled to predict the crack initiation life of SA312 Type 304LN stainless steel pipe with notch under fatigue loading. Tensile and low cycle fatigue properties were evaluated for the same lot of SA312 Type 304LN stainless steel as that of pipe test. The predicted crack initiation lives by different models were compared with the experimental results of three pipes under different frequencies and loading conditions. It was observed that the predicted crack initiation life is in very good agreement with experimental results with maximum difference of ±10.0%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.2949-2957
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• 2020

Fatigue crack growth model has been developed for dissimilar metal weld joints of a piping component under cyclic loading, where in the crack is located at the center of the weld in the circumferential direction. The fracture parameter, Stress Intensity Factor (SIF) has been computed by using principle of superposition as K_H + K_M. K_H is evaluated by assuming that, the complete specimen is made of the material containing the notch location. In second stage, the stress field ahead of the crack tip, accounting for the strength mismatch, the applied load and geometry has been characterized to evaluate SIF (K_M). For each incremental crack depth, stress field ahead of the crack tip has been quantified by using J-integral (elastic), mismatch ratio, plastic interaction factor and stress parallel to the crack surface. The associated constants for evaluation of K_M have been computed by using the quantified stress field with respect to the distance from the crack tip. Net SIF (K_H + K_M) computed, has been used for the crack growth analysis and remaining life prediction by Paris crack growth model. To validate the model, SIF and remaining life has been predicted for a pipe made up of (i) SA312 Type 304LN austenitic stainless steel and SA508 Gr. 3 Cl. 1. Low alloy carbon steel (ii) welded SA312 Type 304LN austenitic stainless-steel pipe. From the studies, it is observed that the model could predict the remaining life of DMWJ piping components with a maximum difference of 15% compared to experimental observations.