Abstract
Abstract This paper presents a single-specimen method of evaluating the fracture toughness of nuclear pressure vessel steels by using a small round compact tension (RCT) specimen with deep side-grooves. The method has been used to estimate the fracture toughness parameters of the nuclear pressure vessel steels A508CL3-A, A508CL3-B and A508CL3-A′ produced by two plants. A comparison of the measured fracture toughness results has been done among the small RCT specimen, the Charpy-size specimen and the large specimen, which GB2038 and ASTM E813 require. The research results indicate that the fracture toughness values obtained from the RCT specimens with the double-size deep side-grooves have little difference when compared with the valid fracture toughness results. Finally, this paper discusses the possibility of using the RCT specimens in nuclear pressure vessel steel embrittlement surveillance.
Published Version
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