Development of failure evaluation method for BWR lower head in severe accident, 2; Applicability evaluation of the FEM using uni-axial material data for multi-axial deformation analysis

Nemoto, Yoshiyuki  ; Kato, Hitoshi; Kaji, Yoshiyuki  ; Yoshida, Hiroyuki  

For the evaluation of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) lower head rupture probably occurred during the severe accident in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants, JAEA is conducting the thermal-hydraulics / mechanical coupling analysis. In the mechanical analysis based on the finite element method (FEM), material property data previously obtained from uni-axial material tests are applied. The lower head of BWR such as Fukushima NPP, has complicated structure compared to PWR, with control rod guide tubes, stub tubes, etc., therefore the mechanical analyses need to treat multi-axial deformation of the materials. To perform such mechanical analysis, the applicability of the analytical model using uni-axial data for multi-axial deformation analysis must be validated. In this study, the internal pressure creep tests were performed because which can realize the multi-axial deformation condition. In addition, mechanical analyses were conducted and the analytical results were compared with the experimental data.