Fatigue studies on carbon steel piping materials and components: Indian PHWRs

Abstract

This paper describes the results of fatigue studies on carbon steel piping materials and components of Indian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs). The piping components include pipes and elbows, of outer diameter 219 mm, 324 mm and 406 mm, made of carbon steel (SA333 Gr.6 grade) material. Tests on actual pipes and elbows with part through notch were carried out to study the behaviour of crack growth under cyclic loading for different pipe sizes, notch aspect ratios, stress ratios, etc. During the tests, numbers of cycles for crack initiation from blunt notch were recorded with an accuracy of 0.1 mm. In conjunction with component tests, the experimental studies were also conducted on standard specimens to understand the effect of different variables such as size (thickness), type of specimen and components (elbow and pipe), welding, stress ratio, notch orientation on fatigue crack growth rate. The fatigue crack growth curve (d a/d N versus Δ K) obtained from three-point bend specimen and pipe was compared with that given in ASME Section XI. The comparison shows that d a/d N versus Δ K curves obtained from the specimen and pipe tests are nearly same. The analytical predictions for crack initiation and crack growth for the tested components were compared with experimental results. Such comparisons validate the modeling procedure for crack initiation and growth.