Fracture evaluations of fusion line cracks in nuclear pipe bimetallic welds

In both BWRs and PWRs there are many locations where carbon steel pipe or components are joined to stainless steel pipe or components with a bimetallic weld. The objective of the research described in this report was to assess the accuracy of current fracture analyses for the case of a crack along a carbon steel to austenitic weld fusion line. To achieve the program objective, material property data and data from a large-diameter pipe fracture experiment were developed to assess current analytical methods. The bimetallic welds evaluated in this program were bimetallic welds obtained from a cancelled Combustion Engineering plant. The welds joined sections of the carbon steel cold-leg piping system to stainless steel safe ends that were to be welded to stainless steel pump housings. The major conclusion drawn as a result of these efforts was that the fracture behavior of the bimetallic weld evaluated in this program could be evaluated with reasonable accuracy using the strength and toughness properties of the carbon steel pipe material in conjunction with conventional elastic-plastic fracture mechanics or limit-load analyses. This may not be generally true for all bimetallic welds, as discussed in this report