Development of 2012 Edition of JSME Code for Design and Construction of Fast Reactors: (4) Creep–Fatigue Evaluation Method for Modified 9Cr–1Mo Steel

Abstract

This paper describes a creep–fatigue evaluation method for modified 9Cr–1Mo steel, which has been newly included in the 2012 edition of the JSME code for design and construction of fast reactors. In this method, creep and fatigue damages are evaluated on the basis of Miner’s rule and the time fraction rule, respectively, and the linear summation rule is employed as the failure criterion. Investigations using material test results are conducted, which show that the time fraction approach can conservatively predict failure life if margins on the initial stress of relaxation and the stress relaxation rate are embedded. In addition, the conservatism of prediction tends to increase with time to failure. Comparison with the modified ductility exhaustion method, which is known to have good failure life predictability in material test results, shows that the time fraction approach predicts failure lives to be shorter in long-term strain hold conditions, where material test data is hardly obtained. These results confirm that the creep–fatigue evaluation method in the code has implicit conservatism.