Structural integrity assessment of reactor pressure vessel focusing on weld-overlay cladding

Nishikawa, Hiroyuki*; Osakabe, Kazuya*; Goto, Nobuhisa*; Suzuki, Hirokazu*; Katsuyama, Jinya  ; Onizawa, Kunio 

Stainless steel with 5 mm thickness is weld-overlay cladded on the inner surface reactor pressure vessels for protecting the vessel walls against the corrosion. Residual stress which corresponds to yield stress is generated near the cladding layer due to the weld-overlay cladding. However, there is no specific provision in the codes related to the cladding. Therefore, in order to confirm how the residual stress affects on the structural integrity of RPVs during pressurize thermal shock events, we evaluate the residual stress caused by the weld-overlay cladding and effects of the stress on the structural integrity. In this paper, the analysis method of welding residual stress of RPVs using finite element method and that of fracture mechanics considering postulated crack are introduced.