The heavy-section steel technology pressurized-thermal-shock experiment, PTSE-1

Abstract

A pressurized-thermal-shock (PTS) facility was developed in the Heavy-Section Steel Technology Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for performing experiments that challenge predictions of analytical methods applicable to full-scale reactor pressure vessels under combined loading. The first experiment (PTSE-1) was designed to address three principal issues: (1) warm-prestressing phenomena; (2) crack propagation from brittle to ductile regions; and (3) transient crack stabilization in ductile regions. The paper presents a description of the PTS facility at ORNL and a review of the objectives and results of the first test. Also included are elastodynamic finite-element analyses of the two crack run-arrest events that occurred in the second and third phases of the test. Finally, some conclusions and recommendations are presented based on the outcome of the first experiment.