Development of Probabilistic Fracture Mechanics Analysis Codes for Reactor Pressure Vessels Considering Recent Embrittlement Model and Calculation Method of SIF: Progress of the Work

It is widely recognized that the state of knowledge and data for the probabilistic calculations which had been proposed in the early 1980s made a conservative treatment of several key factors and models. Recently, applications of some new radiation embrittlement model, material database, calculation method of stress intensity factors and others which can improve fracture mechanics assessment of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) are introduced. This improvement on the accuracy and reliability of the probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) analysis necessitated changes in PFM analysis procedures and calculations. Modification and application of newly developed models and calculation methods are the main target of developing a probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis code based on the structure of existing R-PIE and VISA computer code to reflect the latest technical basis. Failure probabilities of reactor pressure vessel under pressurized thermal shock (PTS) conditions were calculated through finite difference method (FDM) and Monte Carlo simulation techniques with user friendly graphic interface. Moreover, various radiation embrittlement models and calculation methods of stress intensity factor at crack tip based on AFCEN code are applied and verified in the present work.