Abstract
Elastic-plastic finite element (FE) analysis is performed to determine the plastic behavior of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) inner surface caused by rapid cooling during pressurized thermal shock (PTS) events. However, as the J-integral is not path-independent for elastic-plastic material in the unloading process, it is necessary to apply a suitable correction method using elastic material. In addition, it is also necessary to consider the effect of the welding residual stress appropriately. Therefore, we investigated the stress intensity factor derived from FE analysis based on a model consisting of elastic-plastic cladding and linear elastic low-alloy steel with subsequent plastic zone correction, since the stress level of low-alloy steel remains within the elastic region except the crack front during a PTS event. Furthermore, we examined whether the stress mapping method is applicable for reflecting the effect of welding residual stress in FE analysis, even though the plastic strain generated during welding is ignored.
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