• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.9
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• pp.3528-3535
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• 2024

SA508 Gr.1A low-alloy steel is being considered as a candidate material for main steam line piping in nuclear power plants. Therefore, improving its strength and toughness is essential for enhancing the leak-before-break (LBB) margin. In this study, six types of model alloys were fabricated by varying the contents of microalloying elements (C, Cu, B, Ti, and Nb) to enhance the mechanical properties of the specimens. The addition of a few ppm of B led to the formation of a fine-grained low-temperature transformation microstructure, resulting in the highest strength among the model alloys. However, the addition of Nb and Ti increased the formation of coarse ferrite, significantly decreasing the strength of the alloys. Reducing the C content while adding a small amount of B simultaneously maintained strength and enhanced toughness. Furthermore, the LBB margins of model alloys and commercial steel were evaluated to validate the influence of varying microalloying content. The model alloys exhibited a substantial increase in yield strength and fracture resistance, resulting in a more than 10% increase in the LBB margin. Notably, the LBB margin of the alloy with 15 ppm B was 1.39, approximately 25% higher than that of commercial steels.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 1990.04a
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• pp.109-111
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• 1990

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 1990.11a
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• pp.131-132
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• 1990

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.1376-1386
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• 2016

This study investigated the loading rate effect on the fracture resistance under cyclic loading conditions to understand clearly the fracture behavior of piping materials under seismic conditions. J-R fracture toughness tests were conducted under monotonic and cyclic loading conditions at various displacement rates at room temperature and the operating temperature of nuclear power plants (i.e., $316^{\circ}C$). SA508 Gr.1a low-alloy steel and SA312 TP316 stainless steel piping materials were used for the tests. The fracture resistance under a reversible cyclic load was considerably lower than that under monotonic load regardless of test temperature, material, and loading rate. Under both cyclic and monotonic loading conditions, the fracture behavior of SA312 TP316 stainless steel was independent of the loading rate at both room temperature and $316^{\circ}C$. For SA508 Gr.1a lowalloy steel, the loading rate effect on the fracture behavior was appreciable at $316^{\circ}C$ under cyclic and monotonic loading conditions. However, the loading rate effect diminished when the cyclic load ratio of the load (R) was -1. Thus, it was recognized that the fracture behavior of piping materials, including seismic loading characteristics, can be evaluated when tested under a cyclic load of R = -1 at a quasistatic loading rate.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.07d
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• pp.1864-1866
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• 1999

The magnetic nondestructive test can be applied to evaluate the magnetic material characteristics and the fracture properties through the internal defects of SA-508 used in the pressure vessels of the nuclear power plants as the direct and accurate in-situ testing methods. The fracture toughness, yield strength and the stress distribution around the defects in the surface and sub-surface of magnetic materials can be directly estimated by Bark-hausen noise(BN) methods as NDT. The testing process of SA-508 by Barkhausen noise method was advanced by controlling the austenizing peak temperature and the time of maintenance at a constant austenizing peak temperature, therefore causing the variation of fracture toughness. Through above process. we can evaluate the variations of effective grain size and the correlation of effective grain size and FATT at each situation. And the stress distribution around the defects can be quantified nondestructively through Barkhausen method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.867-868
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• 2004

The maximum width of HAZ of SA508치.3 steel produced by overlay RPV cladding was approximately 10 mm and it was composed of variety of microstructures with various grain size and precipitates. In addition, along the weld fusion line there formed a heavy carbide precipitation zone in the width of $20{\sim}30\;{\mu}m$. 2. As the specimen sampling position approached to the weld fusion line, the increase in yield and tensile strength was approximately 90 and 40 MPa, respectively. Meanwhile, the plastic fracture strain reduced from 14 to 8 percent. 3. The lowest SP energy and the highest ductile to brittle transition temperature in the HAZ were observed at the coarse- and fine-grained HAZ.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.405-410
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• 2006

Microstructural features and their related mechanical property changes in the 309L cladding and the heat affected zone (HAZ) of SA508 cl.3 steel were investigated through the use of TEM, tensile and small punch (SP) tests. The specimens were irradiated at 563 K up to the neutron fluences of $5.79{\times}10^{19}n/cm^2$ (>1MeV). The microstructure of the clad was mainly composed of a fcc ${\gamma}-phase$, a low percentage of bcc ${\delta}-ferrite$, and a brittle ${\sigma}-phase$. Along the weld fusion line there formed a heavy carbide precipitation with a width of $20{\sim}40{\mu}m$, showing preferential cracking during plastic deformation. The yield stress and ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) of the irradiated clads increased. The origin of the hardening and the shift of the DBTT are discussed in terms of the irradiation-produced defect clusters of a fine size and brittle ${\sigma}-phase$.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.161-166
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• 2008

In general structures, cleavage fracture may develop under the low constraint condition of larger scale yielding with a shallow surface crack. However, standard procedures for fracture toughness testing require very severe restrictions of specimen geometry. So the standard fracture toughness data makes the integrity assessment irrationally conservative. In this paper, cleavage fracture toughness tests have been made on side-grooved PCVN (precracked charpy V-notch) type specimens (10 by 10 by 55 mm) with varying crack depth, The constraint effects on the crack depth ratios are quantitatively evaluated by scaling model and Weibull stress method using 3-D finite clement method, After correction of constraint loss due to shallow crack depths, the statistical size effect are also corrected according to the standard ASTM E 1921 procedure, The results snowed a good agreement in the geometry correction regardless of the crack size, while some over-corrections were observed in the corrected values of $T_0$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1995.05b
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• pp.709-714
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• 1995

영광 3, 4호기에 사용되고 있는 원전 압력용기용 SA-508 IH 강의 미세구조 및 상온 피로균 열성장 특성을 고찰하였다. 본 강재의 미세구조, 석출물 분포 및 형상을 투과전자현미경을 통하여 관찰하였으며 임계영역에서의 거동 및 균열닫힘에 주목하여 피로균열성장 특성을 연구하였다. 다양한 형태의 (Fe, MR)$_3$C 세멘타이트 및 Mo$_2$C 석출물이 입계, 래스경계면 및 입내에 분포되고 있음을 확인하였다. Paris 영역에서의 피로균열성장 속도는 ASME 기준선과 유사하였으며, 임계 영역에서는 일반적인 저합금강의 경우보다 다소 낮게 나타났다. 파면조사 결과 입내 연성파괴현상이 전 $\Delta$K 영역에서 나타나고 있으며, $\Delta$K$_{th}$ 부터 $\Delta$K가 12 Mpa√m 영역에서는 입계파괴 및 입내 평활면이 관찰되었다.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.98-105
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• 1996

A method is proposed to evaluate the elastic-plastic fracture resistance curve only with load displacement records without the crack length measurement in CT specimen. This method is based on the idea that the effect of plastic deformation and the crack growth can be measured only by using a load-displacement record. If we know the reference-load curve representing the hardening of specimen, then the crack extension can be calculated by the elastic compliance determined from the load ratio. The results of this proposed method were compared to those of the elastic-plastic fracture resistance curve for the ASTM standard unloading compliance method. The experimental results for two kinds of ductile materials showed that the proposed method well simulates the material J-R curves. This method is currently applied for CT specimens. but it can be extended to the other specimen geometries.