Abstract
A technology to determine shallow-flaw fracture toughness of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels is being developed for application to the safety assessment of RPVs containing postulated shallow-surface flaws. Shallow-flaw fracture toughness of RPV material has been shown to be higher than that for deep flaws, because of the relaxation of crack-tip constraint. This report describes the preliminary test results for a series of cruciform specimens with a uniform depth surface flaw. These specimens are all of the same size with the same depth flaw. Temperature and biaxial load ratio are the independent variables. These tests demonstrated that biaxial loading could have a pronounced effect on shallow-flaw fracture toughness in the lower transition temperature region for RPV materials. Through that temperature range, the effect of full biaxial (1:1) loading on uniaxial, shallow-flaw toughness varied from no effect near the lower shelf to a reduction of approximately 58% at higher temperatures.
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