Closed-Form Stress Intensity Factor Solutions for Surface Cracks With Large Aspect Ratios in Plates

2019 ◽  
Vol 142 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kisaburo Azuma ◽  
Yinsheng Li ◽  
Steven Xu

Abstract Alloy 82/182/600, which is used in light-water reactors, is known to be susceptible to stress-corrosion cracking. The depth of some of these cracks may exceed the value of half-length on the surface. Although the stress intensity factor (SIF) for cracks plays an important role in predicting crack propagation and failure, Section XI of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code does not provide SIF solutions for such deep cracks. In this study, closed-form SIF solutions for deep surface cracks in plates are discussed using an influence coefficient approach. The stress distribution at the crack location is represented by a fourth-degree-polynomial equation. Tables for influence coefficients obtained by finite element analysis in the previous studies are used for curve fitting. The closed-form solutions for the influence coefficients were developed at the surface point, the deepest point, and the maximum point of a crack with an aspect ratio a/c ranging from 1.0 to 8.0, where a is the crack depth and c is one-half of the crack length. The maximum point of a crack refers to the location on the crack front where the SIF reaches a maximum value.

Author(s):  
Kisaburo Azuma ◽  
Yinsheng Li ◽  
Kunio Hasegawa ◽  
Do Jun Shim

Materials made of alloy 82/182/600 used in pressurized water reactors are known to be susceptible to primary water stress corrosion cracking. The depth, a, of flaws due to primary water stress corrosion cracking can be larger than half of the crack length c, which is referred to as cracks with large aspect ratios. The stress intensity factor solution for cracks plays an important role to predict crack propagation and failure. However, Section XI of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code does not provide the solutions for cracks with large aspect ratio. This paper presents the stress intensity factor solutions for circumferential surface cracks with large aspect ratios in cylinders under global bending loads. Finite element solutions were used to fit closed-form equations with influence coefficients Ggb. The closed-form solutions for coefficient Ggb were developed at the deepest points and the surface points of the cracks with aspect ratio a/c ranged from 1.0 to 8.0.


Author(s):  
Steven X. Xu ◽  
Darrell R. Lee ◽  
Douglas A. Scarth ◽  
Russell C. Cipolla

Article A-3000 of Appendix A in Section XI of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code provides linear elastic fracture mechanics based calculation procedures for the determination of stress intensity factors. The 2015 Edition of ASME Section XI implements a number of significant improvements in Article A-3000. Major improvements include the implementation of an alternate method for calculation of the stress intensity factor for a surface flaw that makes explicit use of the Universal Weight Function Method and does not require a polynomial fit to the actual stress distribution, and the inclusion of closed-form equations for stress intensity factor influence coefficients for circumferential ID surface cracks. With the inclusion of the explicit weight function approach and the closed-form relations for influence coefficients, the procedures of Appendix A for the calculation of stress intensity factors can be used more efficiently. Closed-form equations for stress intensity factor influence coefficients for axial ID surface cracks have been under development. Tabular data of influence coefficients for the cylinder geometry provided in API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 2007 are used as data source. A set of closed-formed equations for an axial semi-elliptical ID surface crack with depth a and length 2c in a cylinder were previously reported in a 2014 PVP paper. The smallest value for a/c is 0.03125 in the tabular data that were used to fit the equations. For practical applications, it is desirable to use axial flaw equations that allow a/c to approach zero without extrapolation. This issue is addressed in the current PVP paper.


Author(s):  
Kisaburo Azuma ◽  
Yinsheng Li ◽  
Kunio Hasegawa ◽  
Steven Xu

Materials made of Alloy 82/182/600 used in light-water reactors are known to be susceptible to stress corrosion cracking. It is known that the depth a of some cracks due to primary water stress corrosion cracking is larger than the half-length c. The stress intensity factor solution for cracks plays an important role to predict crack propagation and failure. However, Section XI of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code does not provide the solutions for cracks with large aspect ratios a/c. In this study, closed-form stress intensity factor influence coefficients for deep surface cracks in plates are discussed. The crack tip stress distribution is represented by a fourth degree polynomial equation. Influence coefficient tables obtained by using finite element analysis in previous studies are used for curve fitting. The closed-form solutions for the coefficient were developed at the surface points and the deepest points of the cracks with aspect ratio a/c ranged from 1.0 to 8.0. The solutions for the points where the stress intensity factor reaches maximum were also investigated.


Author(s):  
Douglas A. Scarth ◽  
Steven X. Xu

A method for calculating the stress intensity factor for linear elastic fracture mechanics based flaw evaluation is provided in Appendix A-3000 of ASME Section XI. In the 2010 Edition of ASME Section XI, the calculation of stress intensity factor for a surface crack is based on characterization of stress field with a cubic equation and use of influence coefficients. The influence coefficients are currently only provided for flat plate geometry in tabular format. The ASME Section XI Working Group on Flaw Evaluation is in the process of rewriting Appendix A-3000. Proposed major updates include the implementation of explicit use of Universal Weight Function Method for calculation of the stress intensity factor for a surface flaw and the inclusion of closed-form influence coefficients for cylinder geometry. The explicit use of weight function method eliminates the need for fitting polynomial equations to the actual through-thickness stress distributions at crack location. In this paper, the proposed Appendix A procedure is applied to calculate the stress intensity factors in closed-form for an axial ID surface flaw in a cylinder subjected to a set of nonlinear hoop weld residual stress profiles. The calculated stress intensity factor results are compared with the results calculated based on the current method in Appendix A using cubic equations to represent the stress distribution. Three-dimensional finite element analyses were performed to verify the accuracy of the stress intensity factor results calculated based on the current and proposed Appendix A procedures. The results in this paper support the implementation of the proposed stress intensity factor calculation procedure into ASME Code.


Author(s):  
Steven X. Xu ◽  
Darrell R. Lee ◽  
Douglas A. Scarth ◽  
Russell C. Cipolla

Linear elastic fracture mechanics based flaw evaluation procedures in Section XI of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code require calculation of the stress intensity factor. Article A-3000 of Appendix A in ASME Section XI prescribes a method to calculate the stress intensity factor for a surface or subsurface flaw by making use of the flaw location stress distribution obtained in the absence of the flaw. The 2015 Edition of ASME Section XI implemented a number of significant improvements in Article A-3000, including closed-form equations for calculating stress intensity factor influence coefficients for circumferential flaws on the inside surface of cylinders. Closed-form equations for stress intensity factor influence coefficients for axial flaws on the inside surface of cylinders have also been developed. Ongoing improvement efforts for Article A-3000 include development of closed-form relations for the stress intensity factor coefficients for flaws on the outside surface of cylinders. The development of closed-form relations for stress intensity factor coefficients for axial flaws on the outside surface of cylinders is described in this paper.


Author(s):  
Steven X. Xu ◽  
Greg Thorwald ◽  
Patrick Le Delliou ◽  
Russell C. Cipolla

Article A-3000 of Appendix A in ASME Section XI provides methods to calculate stress intensity factors that are used in Section XI linear elastic fracture mechanics based flaw evaluation procedures. The ASME Section XI Working Group on Flaw Evaluation has been in the process of rewriting Article A-3000 of Appendix A. The rewrite of Article A-3000 includes implementation of closed-form equations for stress intensity factor influence coefficients for cylinder geometries. Closed-form relations for stress influence coefficients G0 and G1 for axial flaws on the outside surface in cylinders were recently developed and implemented into the 2017 Edition of ASME Section XI Appendix A. The closed-form equations were implemented with one restriction on the application related to very long flaws. This restriction was taken as an interim approach to addressing a technical concern from the US NRC staff. NRC staff had technical concern on the large percentage fitting errors for the G1 influence coefficients at surface point for some very long flaws. An action was assigned within the ASME Section XI Working Group on Flaw Evaluation to investigate the accuracy of surface point G values for very long flaws. The intent of the investigation is to provide technical justification for using the closed-form equations with no restriction and to identify any issues in the source data or during the fitting process. This paper describes current results from this ongoing investigation.


Author(s):  
Steven X. Xu ◽  
Darrell R. Lee ◽  
Douglas A. Scarth ◽  
Russell C. Cipolla

Analytical evaluation procedures for determining the acceptability of flaws detected during in-service inspection of nuclear power plant components are provided in Section XI of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. Linear elastic fracture mechanics based evaluation procedures in ASME Section XI require calculation of the stress intensity factor. In Article A-3000 of Appendix A of the 2013 Edition of ASME Section XI, the calculation of stress intensity factor for a surface crack is based on characterization of stress field with a cubic equation and use of stress intensity factor influence coefficients. The influence coefficients are only provided for a flat plate geometry. The ASME Section XI Working Group on Flaw Evaluation is in the process of rewriting Article A-3000 of Appendix A. Major updates include the implementation of an alternate method for calculation of the stress intensity factor for a surface flaw that makes explicit use of the Universal Weight Function Method and does not require a polynomial fit to the actual stress distribution, and the inclusion of stress intensity factor influence coefficients for the cylinder geometry. Tabular data of influence coefficients for the cylinder geometry are available in API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 2007. Effort has been made to develop closed-form relations for the stress intensity factor influence coefficients for the cylinder geometry based on API data. With the inclusion of the explicit weight function approach and the closed-form relations for influence coefficients, the procedures of Appendix A for the calculation of stress intensity factors can be used more efficiently. The development of closed-form relations for stress intensity factor influence coefficients for axial ID surface flaws in cylinders is described in this paper.


Author(s):  
Christian Malekian ◽  
Eric Wyart ◽  
Michael Savelsberg ◽  
David Lacroix ◽  
Anne Teughels ◽  
...  

Most of the literature about fracture mechanics treats cracks with a flaw aspect ratio a/l lower or equal to 0.5 where a is the crack depth and l the total length of the crack. The limitation to 0.5 corresponds to a semi-circular shape for surface cracks and to circular cracks for subsurface cracks. This limitation does not seem to be inspired by a theoretical limitation nor by a computational limit. Moreover, limiting the aspect ratio a/l to 0.5 may generate some unnecessary conservatism in flaw analysis. The present article deals with surface cracks in plates with more unusual aspect ratios a/l>0.5 (narrow cracks). A series of Finite-Elements calculations is made to compute the stress intensity factor KI for a large range of crack depths having an aspect ratio greater than 0.5. The KI values can be used with the same formalism as the ASME XI Appendix A, such that this approach can provide an extension above the inherent limitation to 0.5. Some of the results obtained are checked by using two different Finite-Elements softwares (Systus and Ansys), each one with a different cracked mesh. In addition, a comparison is made for some cases with results obtained by a XFEM approach (eXtended Finite-Element Method), where the crack does not need to be meshed in the same way as in classical Finite-Elements. The results show a reduction of stress intensity factor, sometimes significant, when considering a flaw aspect ratio above 0.5 instead of the conventional semi-circular flaw. They also show that it is not always possible to reduce the analysis of KI to only 2 points, namely the crack surface point and the crack deepest point. The growth by fatigue or by corrosion of a crack with such unusual shape should still be investigated.


Author(s):  
Kisaburo Azuma ◽  
Yinsheng Li ◽  
Kunio Hasegawa ◽  
Do Jun Shim

In some cracks attributed to primary water stress corrosion cracking, the crack depth a was greater than half-length of the crack 0.5ℓ. This paper presents details of stress intensity factor solutions for circumferential surface cracks with large aspect ratios a/ℓ in piping system subjected to global bending. The stress intensity factor solutions for semi-elliptical surface cracks were obtained by finite element analyses with quadratic hexahedron elements. Solutions at the deepest and the surface points of the cracks with various aspect ratio (0.5 ≤ a/ℓ ≤ 4.0), crack depth ratio (0.01 ≤ a/t ≤ 0.8) and pipe sizes ( 1/80 ≤ t/Ri ≤ 1/2) were investigated, where t and Ri are wall thickness and inner radius of pipe, respectively. Proposed stress intensity factor solutions for cracks with a/ℓ = 0.5 are consistent with the values reported in the previous study. The solutions developed in this study are widely applicable to various engineering problems related to crack evaluation in piping systems.


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