The Engineering Approach to Estimation of Ductile Crack Growth Under Nonisothermal Loading

The approaches to estimation of ductile crack growth under nonisothermal thermal-stress loading are considered in the paper. It is shown that in a number of cases when using isothermal J_R-curves an estimation of ductile crack growth can be nonconservative. The engineering approach is proposed to estimate the value of ductile crack growth with regard to an actual history of nonisothermal thermal-stress loading. The paper cites an example of construction of nonisothermal J_R-curves for the material of anticorrosive cladding of reactor pressure vessel (PVR) of WWER. Prediction of nonisothermal J_R-curves by the use of finite element method (FEM) is made. It is shown that the nonisothermal J_R-curves obtained by FEM and the proposed engineering approach are of a similar nature.