Crack growth evaluation for cracked carbon and stainless steel pipes under large seismic cyclic loading

Yamaguchi, Yoshihito ; Katsuyama, Jinya  ; Li, Y. ; Onizawa, Kunio 

Japanese nuclear power plants have recently experienced several large earthquakes beyond the previous design basis ground motion. In addition, cracks resulting from long-term operation have been detected in piping lines. Therefore, it is very important to establish a crack growth evaluation method for cracked pipes that are subjected to large seismic cyclic response loading. In our previous study, we proposed an evaluation method for crack growth during large earthquakes through experimental study using small specimens. In the present study, crack growth tests were conducted on pipes with a circumferential through-wall crack, considering large seismic cyclic response loading with complex wave forms. The predicted crack growth values are in good agreement with the experimental results for both stainless and carbon steel pipe specimens and the applicability of the proposed method was confirmed.