Development of an unstable failure analysis procedure considering change of compliance at a crack part of SFR pipes

Wakai, Takashi ; Machida, Hideo*; Yoshida, Shinji*; Yanagihara, Seiji*; Suzuki, Ryosuke*; Matsubara, Masaaki*; Enuma, Yasuhiro  

This paper describes a failure analysis procedure used in leak before break assessment of large sodium pipes in Japan sodium cooled fast reactor made of modified 9Cr-1Mo steel. Since the steel has small thermal expansion rate and excellent high temperature strength, a simplified piping layout can be achieved. However, the fracture toughness of the steel is relatively smaller than that of the austenitic stainless steel used for many former FBR pipes. For this reason, a sophisticated LBB assessment is required for the pipes made of modified 9Cr-1Mo steel. Since the internal pressure of the pipes of JSFR is small, the thermal load caused by thermal expansion is predominant. Supposing a through wall crack in such piping system, the stiffness of the crack part will decrease with crack extension. The rational failure analysis procedure, evaluating the loading conditions at a crack part considering change of compliance of the piping system by a crack, was proposed. Using some experimental results, the validity of the analysis procedure was verified. Finally, the critical crack size was calculated for designed JSFR pipes. It was clarified that the proposed procedure was much effective to loosen LBB conditions for JSFR piping system.