Abstract
In the 1990’s, the Heavy Section Steel Irradiation Program at the ORNL performed investigation of the shape of the fracture toughness master curve for reactor pressure vessel steel highly embrittled because of irradiation exposure. A radiation-sensitive reactor pressure vessel (RPV) weld with intentionally enhanced copper content, designated KS-01, has been characterized in terms of static initiation (KJc) and Charpy impact toughness in the unirradiated and irradiated conditions. The objective of this original project was to investigate the ability of highly embrittled material to maintain the shape of the unirradiated transition fracture toughness curve, as well as to examine the ability of the Charpy 41-J shift to predict the fracture toughness shift at such high level of embrittlement. Irradiation of this weld was performed at the University of Michigan Ford Reactor in the new HSSI irradiation-anneal-reirradiation (IAR) facility. Broken specimens from that project have been saved in ORNL storage. To verify applicability of Mini-CT specimens for fracture toughness characterization of RPV materials as part of the DOE Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program, Mini-CT specimens were machined from broken Charpy specimens and tested according to ASTM E1921 standard. As result of this study, the fracture toughness of this weld derived by testing Mini-CT specimens in the unirradiated and irradiated conditions is compared to previously reported fracture toughness derived by large number of conventional specimens.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Codes and Standards |
| Publisher | American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780791886144 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2022 |
| Event | ASME 2022 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, PVP 2022 - Las Vegas, United States Duration: Jul 17 2022 → Jul 22 2022 |
Publication series
| Name | American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Pressure Vessels and Piping Division (Publication) PVP |
|---|---|
| Volume | 1 |
| ISSN (Print) | 0277-027X |
Conference
| Conference | ASME 2022 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, PVP 2022 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | Las Vegas |
| Period | 07/17/22 → 07/22/22 |
Funding
i Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce This research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC. The machining of irradiated Mini-CT specimens was assisted by Dr. M. Yamamoto from CRIEPI, who also provided deep insights on this study. The author thanks Drs. Xiang (Frank) Chen and Wei Tang for reviewing this paper. Help from Dr. Thomas Rosseel, Materials Research Program Manager for LWRSP, is highly appreciated.
Keywords
- Mini-CT
- RPV
- fracture toughness
- radiation embrittlement