The ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (B&PV) Committee, Subgroup on Design Analysis, established the Task Force on Elastic-Plastic Finite Element Analysis (TF-EP-FEA) to investigate how to use EP-FEA to assess ASME B&PV Code stress limits. This paper presents results of an investigation by the TF-EP-FEA to apply EP-FEA to predict cyclic life of a nozzle-to-plate juncture tested by DeJesus et al. [1]. EP-FEA results are compared to fatigue test results for four specimens cyclically loaded from zero to maximum load. An analytical exercise was defined such that the round-robin participants were to calculate the cyclic life of the nozzle-to-plate fatigue specimens two ways; by using ASME B&PV Code with elastic methods and by using an EP-FEA program. The results and techniques used by the investigators are compared and conclusions are reached regarding which method correlated best for this problem. Commonalties in the approaches are listed so that they may be used to develop general guidelines for use of elastic-plastic FEA to show satisfaction of the fatigue design rules of the ASME B&PV Code.

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