SMILE: EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF THE WP4 PTS LARGE SCALETEST PERFORMED ON A COMPONENT IN TERMS OF CRACKEDCYLINDER INVOLVING WARM PRE-STRESS

摘要

The Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) is an essential component, which is liable to limit the lifetimeduration of PWR plants. The assessment of defects in RPV subjected to pressurized thermal shock(PTS) transients made at an European level generally does not necessarily consider the beneficialeffect of the load history (Warm Pre-stress, WPS).The SMILE project - Structural Margin Improvements in aged embrittled RPV with Load historyEffects - aims to give sufficient elements to demonstrate, to model and to validate the beneficial WPSeffect. It also aims to harmonize the different approaches in the national codes and standards regardingthe inclusion of the WPS effect in a RPV structural integrity assessment. The project includessignificant experimental work on WPS type experiments with C(T) specimens and a PTS type transientexperiment on a large component.This paper deals with the results of the PTS type transient experiment on a component-likespecimen subjected to WPS- loading, the so called Validation Test, carried out within the framework of