SEDL / STP / STP1125-EB / STP17873S


Effects of Irradiation on Crack-Arrest Toughness of Two High-Copper Welds

Iskander, SK
Engineer, program manager, and group leader, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN

Corwin, WR
Engineer, program manager, and group leader, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN

Nanstad, RK
Engineer, program manager, and group leader, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN


Pages: 19    Published: Jan 1992


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Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of neutron irradiation on the shift and shape of the lower-bound curve to crack-arrest data. Two submerged-arc welds with copper contents of 0.23 and 0.31 wt% were commercially fabricated in 220-mm-thick plate. Crack-arrest specimens fabricated from these welds were irradiated at a nominal temperature of 288°C to an average fluence of 1.9 × 1019 neutrons/cm2 (> 1 MeV). A preliminary evaluation of the results shows that the neutron-irradiation induced crack-arrest toughness temperature shift is about the same as the Charpy V-notch impact temperature shift at the 41-J energy level. The shape of the lower-bound curves (for the range of test temperatures covered), compared to those of the ASME KIa-curve, did not seem to have been altered by irradiation.


Keywords:
ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code—Section III, Charpy V-notch impact toughness, copper content, crack arrest, crack-arrest toughness, drop-weight, embrittlement, fracture toughness, irradiation, KIa, light-water reactors, neutron fluence, nil-ductility transition temperature, radiation damage, reactor pressure vessels, reference nil-ductility-transition temperature, RTNDT, regulatory guide, submerged-arc welds, surveillance, transition temperature shift, Δ, RTNDT

Paper ID: STP17873S
Committee/Subcommittee: E10.08
DOI: 10.1520/STP17873S
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