Fatigue Crack Growth Behaviour of Prototype Sized Pipe Bend and Its Equivalent Plate Type Geometry

TLDR: In this article, the Fatigue Crack Growth (FCG) simulation has been carried out for a full-scale pipe bend, and the results are compared with an equivalent plate type geometry.

Abstract: As a part of the stringent safety requirement in the case of the operation of Fast Breeder Reactor, it is necessary to demonstrate that the postulated part-through-crack on the pipe surface shall not become the through-thickness crack during the period between two successive in-service inspection/repair schedules. A fast and accurate estimate of through-thickness crack growth studies plays an important role in demonstrating the structural integrity of the power plant components more effectively. Deployment of an advanced computational technique plays an important role in this direction. 3D numerical estimate on the Fatigue Crack Growth (FCG) behaviour of the prototype piping products is relatively slow and computationally expensive. Towards this end, it is necessary to develop simple computational models without compromising the accuracy. Accordingly, the FCG simulation has been carried out for a full-scale pipe bend, and the results are compared with an equivalent plate type geometry. The salient features adopted in identifying the equivalent plate concept and its comparative performance in the simulation of FCG behaviour are brought out in this paper.