SMILE: Validation of the Warm-Pre-Stress Effect With a Cylindrical Thick-Walled Specimen

The Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) is an essential component, which is liable to limit the lifetime duration of PWR plants. The assessment of defects in RPV subjected to pressurized thermal shock (PTS) transients made at an European level generally does not necessarily consider the beneficial effect of the load history (Warm Pre-stress, WPS). The SMILE project — Structural Margin Improvements in aged embrittled RPV with Load history Effects — aims to give sufficient elements to demonstrate, to model and to validate the beneficial WPS effect. It also aims to harmonize the different approaches in the national codes and standards regarding the inclusion of the WPS effect in a RPV structural integrity assessment. The project includes significant experimental work on WPS type experiments with C(T) specimens and a PTS type transient experiment on a large component. This paper deals with the results of the PTS type transient experiment on a component-like specimen subjected to WPS- loading, the so called Validation Test, carried out within the framework of work package WP4. The test specimen consists of a cylindrical thick walled specimen with a thickness of 40mm and an outer diameter of 160mm, provided with an internal fully circumferential crack with a depth of about 15mm. The specified load path type is Load-Cool-Unload-Fracture (LCUF). No crack initiation occurred during cooling (thermal shock loading) although the loading path crossed the fracture toughness curve in the transition region. The benefit of the WPS-effect by final reloading up to fracture in the lower shelf region, was shown clearly. The corresponding fracture load during reloading in the lower shelf region was significantly higher than the crack initiation values of the original material in the lower shelf region. The post test fractographic evaluation showed that the fracture mode was predominantly cleavage fracture also with some secondary cracks emanating from major crack.