Book Description

A program to develop and evaluate fracture methodologies for the assessment of crack-tip constraint effects on fracture toughness of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels has been initiated in the Heavy-Section Steel Technology (HSST) Program. The focus of studies described herein is on the evaluation of a micromechanical scaling model based on critical stressed volumes for quantifying crack-tip constraint through applications to experimental data. Data were utilized from single-edge notch bend (SENB) specimens and HSST-developed cruciform beam specimens that were tested in HSST shallow-crack and biaxial testing programs. Shallow-crack effects and far-field tensile out-of-plane biaxial loading have been identified as constraint issues that influence both fracture toughness and the extent of the toughness scatter band. Results from applications indicate that the micromechanical scaling model can be used successfully to interpret experimental data from the shallow- and deep-crack SENB specimen tests. When applied to the uniaxially and biaxially loaded cruciform specimens, the two methodologies showed some promising features, but also raised several questions concerning the interpretation of constraint conditions in the specimen based on near-tip stress fields. Crack-tip constraint analyses of the shallow-crack cruciform specimen based on near-tip stress fields. Crack-tip constraint analyses of the shallow-crack cruciform specimen subjected to uniaxial or biaxial loading conditions are shown to represent a significant challenge for these methodologies. Unresolved issued identified from these analyses require resolution as part of a validation process for biaxial loading applications.