ANALYSIS OF CRACK FRONT LENGTH EFFECT APPLICABLE TO THE EVALUATION OF FRACTURE TOUGHNESS OF BASE METAL FOR PWR PRESSURE VESSEL STEEL

摘要

The objective of the present paper is to review the crack front length effect (also called "specimen size effect") on Fracture Toughness of PWR Reactor Pressure Vessel Steel base metal. The analysis of the reality and amplitude of this effect is conducted in a first step on a database (the so called "GKSS database") including fracture toughness test results on a single representative material using specimens of different thicknesses, tested in the same temperature range. A realistic analytical form for describing the size effect observed in this data set is thus derived from statistical analyses and proposed for engineering application. In a second step, this size effect formulation is then applied to a large number of fracture toughness data, obtained in Irradiation Surveillance Programs, and also to the numerous data used for the definition of the ASME (and RCC-M) fracture toughness reference curves. This analysis allows normalizing all the available fracture toughness data with a single specimen width of 100 mm and defining the fracture toughness reference curve as the lower bound of this normalized set of data points. It is thus demonstrated that the fracture toughness reference curve is associated with a reference crack length of 100 mm, and can be used in RPV integrity analyses for other crack front length in association with the crack front length correction formula defined in the first step.