Numerical fracture toughness evaluation of SS316L CT specimens using an Elastic Plastic Fracture Mechanics (EPFM) approach

Abstract

In this study, fracture toughness was determined using an elastic-plastic fracture mechanics approach via numerical simulation. The material chosen for study is austenitic stainless steel 316L, which is extensively used in the nuclear industry for core internal structures. Three different SS316L conditions were considered for the analysis, including welded and post-weld heat-treated conditions aged at 300 °C for 10,000 hours (over-aged) and at 400 °C for 5,000 hours (peak-aged). A compact tension (CT) specimen of standard dimensions, which was taken from ASTM E1820–01, was used to perform the analysis. The J-integral value that is obtained for those three conditions was compared with the base material, which was taken from the open literature. It was found that theJ-integral values of SS 316L for welded conditions were lower than the base material. Also, J-integral values of SS 316L for the two post-weld heat-treated conditions were found to be greater than the weldments but less than the base material. It can also be noted that the values obtained for the SS316L weldments and the post-weld heat-treated sample aged at 335 °C for 10,000 hours were notably similar.