State-of-the-art of WPS in RPV PTS analysis

Zarazovski, M.*; Pistra, V.*; Lauerova, D.*; Obermeier, F.*; Mora, D.*; Dubyk, Y.*; Bolinder, T.*; Cueto-Felgueroso, C.*; Szavai, S.*; Dudra, J.*; et al.

Proceedings of ASME 2022 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2022) (Internet), 11 Pages, 2022/07

The APAL (Advanced Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) Analysis for Long-Term Operation (LTO)) project was launched in October 2020 for four years with funding from the European Union's HORIZON 2020 program. Within APAL, an extensive literature review was performed and experience with defining the state-of-the-art of the Warm Pre-Stress (WPS) effect, which has an impact on the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) brittle fracture margin in both deterministic and probabilistic terms, was collected. To gather the worldwide experience of the WPS approaches and models, a comprehensive questionnaire was developed followed by each APAL partner response. It mainly focused on the following aspects: collection of existing WPS approaches and models implemented in standards and rules for RPV brittle fracture assessment; identification of the WPS issues; collection and analysis of the existing experimental data. This work describes worldwide experience and best practice of the WPS and its application for the RPV integrity assessment. The paper's conclusions are also focused on the recommendations for dealing with WPS issues.