Ligament Rupture and Burst Pressures of Flawed SG U-bends

摘要

U-bend cracking in steam generators (SGs) ofrncommercial nuclear power plants has been reported,rnwhich sometimes led to tube rupture and significantrnleakage from the primary to secondary water. Therefore,rnit is of value to evaluate the structural integrity of flawedrnSG U-bends. The structural analyses for the flawed Ubendsrnhave not been reported much compared with thernflawed straight tubes. In the current work, the structuralrnintegrity of the flawed U-bends was experimentallyrnevaluated with ligament rupture and burst tests. Testrnresults were compared with results predicted by empiricalrnmodels for straight tubes developed by ANL in the pastrn[1].