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Application of the Master Curve Approach for the Irradiation Embrittlement Evaluation of Pressure Vessel Steels
Author(s) -
Viehrig HansWerner,
Böhmert Jürgen
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
steel research international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.603
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1869-344X
pISSN - 1611-3683
DOI - 10.1002/srin.200300235
Subject(s) - charpy impact test , embrittlement , reactor pressure vessel , pressure vessel , materials science , nuclear engineering , structural integrity , toughness , fracture toughness , metallurgy , composite material , structural engineering , engineering
The Master Curve (MC) approach and the associated reference temperature, T 0 , as defined in the test standard ASTM E1921, is rapidly moving from the research laboratory to application in integrity assessment of components and structures. T 0 is the index temperature for the universal MC, which considers the toughness behaviour of a specific material. “The Structural Integrity Assessment Procedures for European Industry” (SINTAP) contain a MC extension for analysing the fracture behaviour of inhomogeneous ferritic steels. This paper presents the application of the MC approach to the T 0 determination of different types of Russian WWER‐type reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels. In addition the SINTAP‐MC approach was applied to determine an alternative reference temperature, T R . The influence of different microstructures and compositions within one type of RPV steel and the effect of irradiation with fast neutrons on T 0 are experimentally evaluated. In general the MC based T 0 is about 72 K below the Charpy V‐notch transition temperature related to an impact energy of 48 J. The paper demonstrates the application of MC based T 0 and T R as an alternative reference temperature for neutron embrittled RPV steels used in the RPV integrity assessment.