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1. Introduction
With the development of the nuclear
power industry, more and more pipelines are being
used. The mechanical integrity of the nuclear reactor
piping is a matter of great importance for both
economical and safety reasons. Flaws are inherent in
many components owing to the processes by which
they are manufactured or fabricated. Depending on
the environment, material composition, operating
conditions, and location, piping components in
nuclear power plants are subjected to different types
of degradation mechanisms. Thus, the existence of
flaws in the nuclear piping is unavoidable.
There are benefits of a probabilistic
approach as it can be used to ensure that the main
safety concerns are addressed in an economic
manner. The relative values of the failure
probabilities of pressure piping may be used as a
guide to the most economic deployment of resources
on maintenance, inspection and repair. The
assessment results could be used, for example, to
concentrate ultrasonic inspection on the locations at
highest risk, thus gaining maximum benefit from the
inspection. The traditional approach of safety
assessment and design lies in a deterministic model.
For the deterministic method, when the random
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(1)
( )
(2)
3. Probabilistic Analysis
Kr =
Lr =
(3)
(4)
Where,
K is the stress intensity factor at any time,
KIC the material fracture toughness, the applied
stress, and c the flow stress of the material.
1.2
UNSAFE
1
0.8
0.6
FAILURE ASSESMENT
LINE
SAFE
Kr
Keff = ys [ ln sec ( )]
0.4
A(Lr, Kr )
Option 1 curve
0.2
0
0
Lr
Figure 1.Failure Assessment Diagram
5. Failure criteria
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5.1. R6 procedure
R6 procedure is a failure assessment
method that takes into account both the elastic and
plastic modes of failure. Structures made from
materials with sufficient toughness may not be
susceptible to brittle fracture, but they can fail by
plastic collapse if they are overloaded. Dowling,
Townley and Harrison, introduced the concept of
two-criteria Failure Assessment Diagram (FAD) to
describe the interaction between fracture and
collapse. This simple engineering assessment
procedure for the evaluation of structural integrity for
defected structures was improved and is known as the
R6 procedure. There are two basic failure modes
assessed by R6: plastic collapse and fast fracture.
Plastic collapse is controlled by overall plasticity in
the defective section and fast fracture by the local
crack-tip stressstrain fields.
(6)
Where,
LAr and KAr are the co-ordinates of the
assessment point A and r is the distance OB as shown
in Fig. 2. The values of LAr and KAr are determined as
=
=
(7)
(8)
Where,
KI is the stress intensity factor at any time, K IC
the material fracture toughness, the applied stress,
and f the flow stress of the material.
5.2. Simulation
In this study, the stochastic evolution
of cracks due to defect in 304 austenitic stainless
steel is simulated using MCS technique. The details
regarding the random variables and pipe properties
considered in this study are given in Tables 1 and 2.
Table 1.Details of random variables considered.
Variable
Distribu
tion
Parameters
Applied
stress
Normal
Mean,
1.05102Mpa
Cov,
0.20
Flow
stress
Normal
1.51102Mpa
0.10
procedure
In this study, R6-option 1 curve shown in
Fig. 2 is used as the failure assessment line because
this is the general curve The R6 gives three different
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material,
and
9.9110-3
Inside diameter(m)
3.6410-1
Pipe material
Material
fracture
toughness(Mpam)
40.0
()
Where,
Nf is the number of failure cases and N is the
total number of simulations (i.e. 50).
1.2
Assessment Point
1
0.8
Kr
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0
Lr
59
1.2
0.045
R6 METHOD
0.04
Assessment Point
0.035
0.03
Probability of Failure(%)
0.8
Kr
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.025
0.02
0.015
0.01
0.005
0
0
0
0
Lr
Probability of failure
(inch)
5
a=0.5
(%)
0
b=0.8
10
a=1
0.02
a=1.5
15
20
Time(years)
8. Conclusion
In this paper an attempt has been made to study
the stochastic propagation of part through cracks with
time using MCS technique. The trend of the
distribution of crack depths at the initial stages is
found to be in satisfactory agreement with the
relevant experimental observations reported in the
literature. The variation in failure probabilities with
time determined using the R6 approach show similar
trends.
9. Future Scope
b=2
15
10
Year
0.04
b=4
The failure probabilities calculated at
different times using R6 failure criteria are shown in
Fig.5. From the figure, it is noted that the failure
probabilities remain zero till 5 year. After 5 years, the
failure probabilities increase gradually. At the end of
15 years, the failure probability is 0.40.
10. References
[1] Y.C. Lin, Y.J. Xie, X.H. Wang Probabilistic
fracture failure analysis of nuclear piping containing
defects using R6 method. Nuclear Engineering and
Design 229 (2004) 237246
[2] C Priya, K B Rao1, M B Anoop, N
Lakshmanan, V Gopika, H S Kushwaha, and R K
Saraf
Probabilistic failure analysis of austenitic nuclear
pipelines against stress corrosion cracking. Journal
of Mechanical Engineering Science 2005 219:607.
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