Abstract
The effect of warm prestressing has been investigated representative for the core weld metal of the RPV Stade. Model experiments on CT specimens show a significant rise of effective fracture toughness K eff after warm prestressing and the conservative WPS hypothesis, ‘no failure, if ∂ K I/∂ t≤0’, is verified. Partial unloading and reheating show no influence on the effective fracture toughness K eff. The magnitude of the WPS effect as a function of warm prestress level and temperature, path of unloading and cooling can be predicted using a modified Beremin model with temperature dependent parameters. It is shown that the Weibull stress is an appropriate crack tip loading parameter for decreasing load paths.
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