Development of stress intensity factor solution for surface crack at nozzle corner in reactor pressure vessel

Yamaguchi, Yoshihito ; Takamizawa, Hisashi ; Katsuyama, Jinya  ; Li, Y. 

The stress intensity factor (SIF) for crack at nozzle corner is a key parameter in structural integrity assessment of nozzle in reactor pressure vessel (RPV). Although various SIF solutions for surface cracks at nozzle corners have been proposed, most of them are only focusing on the deepest point of the crack, and the information about geometric dimension of the nozzle corner is not clear. According to the previous fatigue test results regarding the surface crack at the nozzle corner, the amounts of crack growth at the surface points were larger than that at the deepest point of the crack. Such results imply that SIFs at the surface points may be higher than that at the deepest point. To increase the reliability of the structural integrity assessment, it is necessary to provide SIF solutions for both surface and deepest points. In this study, SIF solutions for two surface points and the deepest point of surface crack at nozzle corners are developed through finite element analyses and the solutions are provided corresponding to the geometric dimensions of nozzle corner and crack size.