Study on strength of thin-walled tee pipe for fast breeder reactors under seismic loading

Watakabe, Tomoyoshi; Tsukimori, Kazuyuki; Otani, Akihito*; Moriizumi, Makoto; Kaneko, Naoaki*

In recent years, earthquakes over design condition were observed in Japan. Confirming the ultimate strength and design safety margin of mechanical components is important for the seismic integrity. This study focused on piping components, and it was one of the most important mechanical components for protecting boundary of coolant. Failure tests of thick-walled piping components for Light Water Reactors (LWRs) described previously in the literature. According to these tests, the failure mode of thick-walled piping components under seismic cyclic loading was low cycle fatigue. However, failure tests have scarcely been performed on thin-walled piping components pressurized at low levels for Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs). This paper presents dynamic failure tests of thin-walled piping components in FBRs. Based on the test results, the failure mode, the ultimate strength, and the elastic-plastic behavior are discussed.