Methodological developments in the field of structural integrity analyses of large scale reactor pressure vessels in Hungary
Journal Title: Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale - Year 2016, Vol 10, Issue 36
Abstract
Buildings, structures and systems of large scale and high value (e.g. conventional and nuclear power plants, etc.) are designed for a certain, limited service lifetime. If the standards and guidelines of the time are taken into account during the design process, the resulting structures will operate safely in most cases. However, in the course of technical history there were examples of unusual, catastrophic failures of structures, even resulting in human casualties. Although the concept of Structural Integrity first appeared in industrial applications only two-three decades ago, its pertinence has been growing higher ever since. Four nuclear power generation units have been constructed in Hungary, more than 30 years ago. In every unit, VVER-440 V213 type light-water cooled, light-water moderated, pressurized water reactors are in operation. Since the mid-1980s, Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) analyses of Reactor Pressure Vessels (RPV) have been conducted in Hungary, where the concept of structural integrity was the basis of research and development. In the first part of the paper, a short historic overview is given, where the origins of the Structural Integrity concept are presented, and the beginnings of Structural Integrity in Hungary are summarized. In the second part, a new conceptual model of Structural Integrity is introduced. In the third part, a brief description of the VVER-440 V213 type RPV and its surrounding primary system is presented. In the fourth part, a conceptual model developed for PTS Structural Integrity Analyses is explained.
Authors and Affiliations
Tamás Fekete
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP112282
- DOI 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.36.09
- Views 82
- Downloads 0
Crack growth simulation in heterogeneous material by S-FEM and comparison with experiments
Fully automatic fatigue crack growth simulation system is developed using S-version FEM (SFEM). This system is extended to fracture in heterogeneous material. In the heterogeneous material, crack tip stress field...
Wear surface damage of a Stainless Steel EN 3358 aeronautical component subjected to sliding
The present paper describes the failure analysis of an aircraft component subjected to several episodes of in service failure, resulted in loss of the aircraft safety. Modern aircrafts are provided with mechanical...
Effect of pressure on the physical properties of magnetorheological fluids
To date, several applications of magnetorheological (MR) fluids are present in the industrial world, nonetheless system requirements often needs better material properties. In technical literature a previous work s...
Wedge splitting test method: quantification of influence of glued marble plates by two-parameter fracture mechanics
In the present paper, the well-known wedge splitting test (WST) is applied on specimens with different geometries (S= 150, 200, 300 mm) and variants of the specimens’ configurations. K-calibration (B1) and T-stre...
Structural mechanisms of formation of adiabatic shear bands
The paper focuses on the experimental and theoretical study of plastic deformation instability and localization in materials subjected to dynamic loading and high-velocity perforation. We investigate the behavior...