Study on ultimate strength of thin-wall piping components for fast breeder reactors under seismic loading

Watakabe, Tomoyoshi; Kitamura, Seiji ; Tsukimori, Kazuyuki; Morishita, Masaki 

It is important to confirm failure modes and safety margin until ultimate strength of piping components from the point of view of seismic safety. Though, many dynamic failure tests of the thick-wall piping components for Light Water Reactors (LWRs) have been performed, there are little dynamic failure test data of the thin-wall pipe for Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs). This paper presents a series of dynamic failure tests of thin-wall elbows with the diameter/thickness ratio close to that of the main piping of FBRs and discusses about vibration characteristics in elastic-plastic region, failure modes under dynamic load and the results of piping design evaluation for the test model. Moreover, the test results were compared to the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) results.