Evaluation of brittle crack arrest toughness for highly-irradiated reactor pressure vessel steels

Iwata, Keiko; Hata, Kuniki; Tobita, Toru; Hirota, Takatoshi*; Takamizawa, Hisashi; Chimi, Yasuhiro; Nishiyama, Yutaka

Proceedings of ASME 2021 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2021) (Internet), 7 Pages, 2021/07

Mitigation of cavitation damage in J-PARC mercury target vessel

Naoe, Takashi; Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Wakui, Takashi; Wakai, Eiichi; Haga, Katsuhiro; Takada, Hiroshi

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 28, p.081004_1 - 081004_6, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.28.081004

The beam window of the mercury target vessel in J-PARC is severely damaged by the cavitation. The cavitation damage is a crucial factor to limit lifetime of the target because it increases with the beam power. Therefore, mitigating cavitation damage is an important issue to operate the target stably for long time at 1 MW. At J-PARC, to mitigate the cavitation damage: gas microbubbles are injected into mercury for suppressing pressure waves, and double-walled structure with a narrow channel of 2 mm in width to form high-speed mercury flow (4m/s) has been adopted. After operation, the beam window was cut to inspect the effect of the cavitation damage mitigation on inner wall. We optimized cutting conditions through the cold cutting tests, succeeding in cutting the target No.2 (without damage mitigation technologies) smoothly in 2017, and target No.8 with damage mitigation technologies. In the workshop, progress of cavitation damage observation for the target vessel will be presented.

Mechanical properties database of reactor pressure vessel steels related to fracture toughness evaluation

Tobita, Toru; Nishiyama, Yutaka; Onizawa, Kunio

JAEA-Data/Code 2018-013, 60 Pages, 2018/11

JAEA-Data-Code-2018-013.pdf:1.67MB

Mechanical properties of materials including fracture toughness are extremely important for evaluating the structural integrity of reactor pressure vessels (RPVs). In this report, the published data of mechanical properties of nuclear RPVs steels, including neutron irradiated materials, acquired by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), specifically tensile test data, Charpy impact test data, drop-weight test data, and fracture toughness test data, are summarized. There are five types of RPVs steels with different toughness levels equivalent to JIS SQV2A (ASTM A533B Class 1) containing impurities in the range corresponding to the early plant to the latest plant. In addition to the base material of RPVs, the mechanical property data of the two types of stainless overlay cladding materials used as the lining of the RPV are summarized as well. These mechanical property data are organized graphically for each material and listed in tabular form to facilitate easy utilization of data.

Hydrogenation of 1-type AlNi alloy at high pressure and temperature

Endo, Naruki*; Saito, Hiroyuki; Machida, Akihiko; Katayama, Yoshinori

Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 645(Suppl.1), p.S61 - S63, 2015/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2015.01.200

Viscosity and density measurements of melts and glasses at high pressure and temperature by using the multi-anvil apparatus and synchrotron X-ray radiation

Otani, Eiji*; Suzuki, Akio*; Ando, Ryota*; Urakawa, Satoru*; Funakoshi, Kenichi*; Katayama, Yoshinori

Advances in High-Pressure Technology for Geophysical Applications, p.195 - 209, 2005/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-044451979-5.50012-0

This paper summarizes the techniques for the viscosity and density measurements of silicate melt and glasses at high pressure and temperature by using the X-ray radiography and absorption techniques in the third generation synchrotron radiation facility, SPring-8, Japan. The falling sphere method using in situ X-ray radiography makes it possible to measure the viscosity of silicate melts to the pressures above 6 GPa at high temperature. We summarize the details of the experimental technique of the viscosity measurement, and the results of the measurements of some silicate melts such as the albite and diopside-jadeite systems. X-ray absorption method is applied to measure the density of the silicate glasses such as the basaltic glass and iron sodium disilicate glass up to 5 GPa at high temperature. A diamond capsule, which is not reactive with the glass, is used for the density measurement of the glasses. The present density measurement of the glasses indicates that this method is useful for measurement of the density of silicate melts at high pressure and temperature.

High-pressure induced structural changes in metastable GeSbTe thin films; An X-ray absorption study

Fons, P.*; Kolobov, A.*; Tominaga, Junji*; Katayama, Yoshinori

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 238(1-4), p.160 - 162, 2005/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2005.06.039

Super-resolution (SR) media offer up to a factor of ten increase in areal storage density over conventional DVD media. Although SR has been realized, there is a strong need for a deeper understanding of structural and electronic changes in GeSbTe (GST), a principal optical memory component, with external perturbations. Recording of SR disks leads to the formation of gas-phase bubbles that in turn lead to the development of large stresses on the underlying GST layer. In this paper we report on XAFS of nominally hydrostatic (0-10 GPa) compressive stress-induced structural changes of the metastable crystalline phase of GST. An analysis showed that the initial splitting of Ge Te bond lengths of the room-temperature distorted rocksalt structure decreased to a small but finite splitting for 6 GPa. The implications of this upon the proposed ferroelectric catastrophe super-RENS readout mechanism are discussed.

Correlation between cleavage fracture toughness and charpy impact properties in the transition temperature range of reactor pressure vessel steels

Onizawa, Kunio; Suzuki, Masahide

JSME International Journal, Series A, 47(3), p.479 - 485, 2004/07

In the structural integrity assessment of reactor pressure vessel, fracture toughness values are estimated by assuming that the radiation effect on fracture toughness is equivalent to that on Charpy properties. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the correlation between both properties especially on irradiation embrittlement. In this paper, we present the fracture toughness data obtained by applying the master curve approach that was adopted recently in the ASTM test method. Materials used in this study are five ASTM A533B class 1 steels and one weld metal. Neutron irradiation for Charpy-size specimens as well as standard Charpy-v specimens was carried out at the Japan Materials Testing Reactor. The shifts of the reference temperature on fracture toughness due to neutron irradiation are evaluated. Correlation between the fracture toughness reference temperature and Charpy transition temperature is established. Based on the correlation, the optimum test temperature for fracture toughness testing and the method to determine a lower bound fracture toughness curve are discussed.

Synthesis of AlGaN alloy by solid-phase reaction under high pressure

Saito, Hiroyuki; Utsumi, Wataru; Kaneko, Hiroshi*; Aoki, Katsutoshi

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Part 2, 43(7B), p.L981 - L983, 2004/07

https://doi.org/10.1143/JJAP.43.L981

Bulk specimens of AlGaN alloys covering a composition range of 01 were synthesized by a solid-phase reaction under high pressure. X-ray diffraction profiles were measured to observe the alloying process, which began at around 800C under 6.0 GPa. SEM observation and X-ray analysis of the recovered specimen indicated a uniform distribution of Al and Ga and continuous variations of the lattice constants against the composition, which implies that a solid solution of AlN and GaN is formed regardless of atomic composition.

Probabilistic fracture mechanics analyses of RPV under some PTS transients

Onizawa, Kunio; Shibata, Katsuyuki; Kato, Daisuke*; Li, Y.*

Proceedings of 11th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-11) (CD-ROM), 8 Pages, 2003/04

Probabilistic Fracture Mechanics (PFM) has been used in the fields of reliability analysis for important structural components. At JAERI, the PFM analysis code PASCAL has been developed. This code evaluates the conditional probabilities of crack initiation and fracture of a reactor pressure vessel (RPV) under transient conditions such as pressurized thermal shock (PTS). Four cases of PTS transients were selected based on the severity for a typical 3-loop PWR. Based on thermal stress analyses, PFM analyses were performed by using PASCAL code focusing on some important variables on the RPV fracture probability. The results showed that non-destructive examination methods had a significant effect on the fracture probability by more than three orders of magnitude. The comparisons of the results using fracture toughness estimation methods between in Japan and USA, and crack geometries between a semi-elliptical surface crack and an infinite surface crack are also made.

In situ EXAFS study on GeS glass under high-pressure

Miyauchi, Koichi*; Qiu, J.*; Shojiya, Masanori*; Kawamoto, Yoji*; Kitamura, Naoyuki*; Fukumi, Kohei*; Katayama, Yoshinori; Nishihata, Yasuo

Solid State Communications, 124(5-6), p.189 - 193, 2002/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0038-1098(02)00489-1

A GeS glass was compressed up to 8 GPa at room temperature, heated up to 270 C under 8 GPa and then decompressed to ambient pressure at room temperature, using a large volume high-pressure apparatus. The local structural-changes around Ge were examined by means of EXAFS method. The Ge-S bond length became monotonously short with increasing applied-pressure up to 8 GPa at room temperature. When the specimen was heated to 270 C under 8 GPa, however, the vond length became slightly long. The elongated bond lengthe was almost kept even after the temperature was descended to room tempertature. In decompression process, the bond length became gradually long with releasing applied-pressure down to 2 GPa, following a change in compression process. Below 2 GPa, however, the Ge-S bond length was largely elongated, being lnger than the initial one. No significant change of coordination number was found in the compression and decompression processes up to 8 GPa. This change canbe explained by a combined effect of elastic and inelastic structural-changes.