Session: MF-22-01 3D Crack Growth Simulation Using FEA

Paper Number: 106250

106250 - Natural Crack Growth Due to Thermo-Mechanical Fatigue Using 3d Iterative Fe Analysis 

Since the component of nuclear power plants (NPP) repeatedly undergoes temperature changes during operation, thermal fatigue is one of the important damage mechanisms of NPP. The fracture mechanics analysis procedure provided by ASME B&PV Code Section XI is widely used to evaluate the integrity of NPP due to fatigue damage. In the fracture mechanics analysis process provided by ASME B&PV Code Section XI, the crack growth amount is calculated using the stress intensity factor. In the ASME B&PV Code Section XI, the stress intensity factor solutions are provided for a limited shape such as a plate, pipe, nozzle, etc. However, crack growth evaluation using the ASME B&PV Code Section XI procedure can simulate actual crack growth only in limited cases because the shape is limited and the crack growth amount is calculated only at two points. Therefore, various methods have been developed to calculate the actual crack growth amount based on finite element analysis. Recently, the authors developed natural crack growth simulation system, which can only consider the mechanical load during crack growth, and can not consider the thermal fatigue Therefore, in this study, a program that can perform thermo-mechanical fatigue crack growth was developed. The program is added as a plug-in tool on Abaqus, a commercial finite element analysis program. This program calculates the thermal stress over time, the resulting maximum and minimum stress intensity factors and crack growth amount in sequential order. The developed program was verified by comparing the crack growth amount with the existing analytical solution.

Presenting Author: Gi-Bum Lee Seoul National University of Science and Technology

Presenting Author Biography: Presenter Gi-Bum Lee is a Ph.D. student at Seoul National University of Science and Technology. He graduated from the same university with his bachelor's and master's degrees, majoring in fracture mechanics.

Authors:

Gi-Bum Lee Seoul National University of Science and Technology
Nam-Su Huh Seoul National University of Science and Technology
Sunghoon Park VENG