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Pressure Vessel Creep Analysis: Rupture
Pressure Vessel Creep Analysis: Rupture
317
For simplified model realized in the LOHEY code coefficient and the temperature increment; a j (t) -
the following main assumptions are used: stress components.
the half spherical or half ellipsoidal lower Plastic strain and creep strains are written as:
head is considered as a set of symmetric about vessel I
the hoop element is considered as a multi- where dEi~l is the intensity increment of a -th
layer shell; in each layer temperature along radial,
strain component (plastic or creep strain); a iDt - the
hoop and meridional direction is assumed to be con-
stant; stress intensity; a o = (am + a e ) / 3.
the layer stress state is assumed biaxial; ra- The intensity increment of plastic strain is calcu-
dial stress is not considered, only two diagonal com- lated with the help of Ei~: - a iDl diagram by the fol-
ponents of stress tensor are taken into account. lowing way:
pi - K load d
d EiDt - - - a iDl ,
H
where K10ad - the loading condition coefficient:
neutral loading (da int =0) and unloading conditions
(daint <0) correspond to K 10ad = 0, loading condi-
tions (da inl >0) corresponds to K 10ad = 1; H - the
b
tangent plastic modulus according to Ei~: - a int dia-
a gram.
The correlation for the creep strain intensity in-
Figure 1. Lower head geometry.
crement may be written as:
The basic equations which allow to describe the Q
318
Table 2. Creep rate of SA533Bl steel
T,K P,MPa max. elongation, min. creep rate, Time to tertiary Time to creep rup-
% %/h creeI', h ture, h
900 70 22.4 0.03 70 190.1
900 140 24.3 0.35 5.27 11.3
.1000 56 37 2.13 2.58 4.6
where I; - meridional (i = m) and hoop (i = () ) So, the normal forces in the force balance equa-
normal forces; on (t) - the thickness of n-th layer. It tion (6) are equal:
is assumed that thickness on (t) changes are due to T
m
= Tmpress + Thydro
m
+ Tweighl
m (11)
unelastic deformation.
MerIdional and hoop normal forces equilibrate
the external loads - vessel pressure and weight of
Failure criteria. Two failure criteria are included
corium and vessel wall.
in the considered models. According to the first crite-
Pressure loads. The normal forces in half ellipsoi- rion the layer fails if the plastic strain intensity ex-
dal lower head caused by vessel overpressure are ceeds the ultimate failure strain. The second criterion
equal: is based on the analysis of material damage induced
by creep strains. Using the correlation for time to
TP,ess _ PRe . TP,ess = PRe (2 _ Re ) , (8) rupture at given stress and temperature, the current
m -2' e 2 R
m damage of each layer is determined. A maximum
where P is the in- vessel pressure. cumulative damage reaches the certain limit rupture
is assumed. Lower head global rupture occurs when
Weight loads. Let's consider the lower head in all layers of the hoop element are melted or failed.
section with polar angle <po It is assumed that corium
is liquid and top level of corium is characterized by 3. SIMULATION OF LHF-l AND LHF-2
polar angle epeof' If considered section is placed un- EXPERIMENTS
der the corium top level, normal forces are caused by
A 1:4.85-th scaled experiment to characterize
1) hydrostatic pressure P"yd, of liquid corium, placed
rupture failure of reactor vessel lower head due to
above the considered section, and 2) by weight thermal and pressure load has been performed at
Weep) of vessel wall and corium, placed under the SNL. The hemispherical RPV model made of
considered section. The normal forces in a lower SA533B1 steel, 0.91 m in diameter and thickness of
head wall caused by hydrostatic pressure of liquid 29.8 mm - 33.3 mm, which uniformly varied from
corium is estimated with help of (8), where bottom center to equator was tested. Two experi-
ments were considered with different thermal loads:
P = Phyd, = Peo,gz , (9) uniformly heated wall in the test LHF-1 and bottom
peaked heating in the test LHF-2.
where Peor - the corium density; g - the accel-
Vessel pressure and vessel temperature time his-
eration of free fall; z is the height of corium placed tories for LHF-I experiment are shown in Figure 4
above the considered section. and Figure 5, correspondingly. Experimental rupture
If to suggest that hoop force caused by the weight time was 2.40 hour.
of corium and vessel wall is negligible then we re-
The calculated axial displacement time histories
ceive the correlation for normal meridional force:
obtained with FEM HEFEST code at the vessel bot-
2rcR(cp)T;eighl =Weep) sin () ; (10) tom is plotted in Figure 6 together with experimental
data. Two cases were considered: a)thermal elastic
Because described approach considers only nor- plastic model with hardening without creep, and b)
mal forces and it does not consider the bending com- full material model which includes creep. One can
ponent of loads (and the shear force), caused by me- see that in both cases good agreement with experi-
ridional gradient of physical parameters, we take into ment was obtained, namely:
account only meridional force T;eighl as source of - up to t= 125 min calculated strain IS equal to
stresses into vessel wall. measured values for both models;
319
- both models predict time of significant increase of abruptly with the pressure increase from 10 to 12
the strain rate which corresponds to experimental MPa at t=200 min. Calculated yield stress cry (980K)
data. was 15% greater then nominal. Corresponding stress
At 145-th min deformation achieved 30% which intensity cre=80 MPa. The discrepancy between cal-
is in a good agreement to the 33% in the test. culational and experimental cry was within the un-
For uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, the certainty range. In calculations with full model, creep
method of statistical tests has been used with the law coefficient was m(T)=1.8 as in [4] but A(T) var-
-22 -20
LOHEY code. The following mechanical properties ied from 10 at 900K, to 210 . at temperature
were assumed as random parameters: the yield of 1000K. For this choice of creep constant agree-
strength, the ultimate strength, the creep rate, the ment with experimental data was reasonable. Be-
time to the creep rupture, the ultimate plastic strain. cause during the first stage of loading, a significant
The probability density of the vessel failure for LHF- degree of deformation was achieved, the second
1 experiment is shown in Figure 5. Predicted failure phase was not modelled because residual stress and
time was 2.55 hour (exceeds the experimental value annealing might change those properties.
by 6%).
Calculations with LOHEY module predicted that
A specific feature of the LHF-2 experiment was failure time of vessel model was 8.53 hours which is
the two stage loading of the model. Vessel pressure in a good agreement with experimental rupture time
and vessel temperature time histories are shown in of 8.50 hour. We assumed that the internal pressure
Figure 8 and Figure 9, correspondingly. As in the and temperature after 8.5 hours were constant and
LHF-l test, the intensive deformation was observed equal to the values corresponding failure conditions.
at nearly constant pressure of 10 MPa. Temperature The probability and the probability density of the
in the bottom center was about 1000 K during first vessel failure in LHF-2 experiment are shown in
stage. Because of malfunctions in heating system and Figure 13.
leak, the vessel was depressurized and experiment As it was mentioned the calculations of LHF-2
was interrupt.
experiment were sensitive to the choice of creep
During the second stage at 475 minutes nominal constants. At 125-130 minutes intensive deformation
pressure of 10 MPa was reached when temperature in of the vessel was observed. At this time maximum
a bottom center was 900 K. Vessel failure was ob- temperature in the test vessel reached 950 K. In the
served at 510 minutes when maximum temperature temperature range between 900 - 1000K limite d
was 1020 K. The maximum strain reached the value amount of experimental creep data are available.
of35 %. Creep data from the report [4] are presented in
Figure 12.
Only first stage of the LHF-2 test was simulated
with HEFES T code. During time 135-225 min the There are different possible approaches for
axial and radial displacements were increasing with evaluation of correlation parameters, for example
approximately constant rate. Calculated deformation time to creep rupture in our example. For the de-
of vessel at 225 minutes is plotted in Figure 11. As scription of rupture time the following expression is
for LHF-l two cases were considered with and with- usually used:
G
out accounting for creep modeling.
Up to the time instant of t1 = 125min, strain rate
gradually increased for both cases presented in where B, m ,G are the material constants. The re-
Figure 10. At this time stress intensity in steel sults presented in the report determine time to rup-
reached the value of von Mises criterion, indicating ture using linear part which is characterised by con-
the beginning of plastic deformation. Further in- stant strain rate (See Figure 3). Therefore, the use of
crease if strains is associated with the steel creep this data will allow to predict time to rupture but
behavior. Elastic-plastic model predicts the same deformations will be smaller.
deformation rate up to 200 minutes, which increase
320
400
350
300
1- EGP,
- - Y, MPa
calc. v ___ , ..... ,'
250
200 -
.....__ .... __.... _................. .............
"
............ "
150 ........ , ...... -10' .
: min. v
,.' .. '
100
.. ' .. '
50 .. ' .. '
Figure 2. Young modulus and yield stress for Figure 3. Sketch of creep strain time history
SA533Bl steel
10 10
8 8
a
a
..-
~
III
a. :0
III
~ :;;Co 6 6 .a
e
!Ii
:J
(/)
(/)
....
CI,)
6
-
~
:J
~
~4 4 'iii
.2:-
.....0.
0
a. E
Q)
cCI,)
I- Cl
2 2
2
0 0 0
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
Time, hour Time, hour
Figure 4. Vessel pressure time history during Figure 5. Vessel temperature time history during
LHF-1 experiment. LHF-l experiment and density of the probability
0.30
Experiment
10 ........ EI. - plastic
-Fool model 0.10
8
-0.10
E 6
(,J
,j
4 -0.30
2 -0.50
0
60 80 100 120 140 o o
11/ ~
time, min o o
Figure 6.Axial displacement of the lowest vessel Figure 7.Calculated deformation of pressure vessel
pointfor LHF-l test . for LHF-l experiment at 145 min
321
L = 1 inch
12
L:= 7 inch
1200
10 L = 11 inch
1000
8
~ ~
g
~ 6
I
:J
600
~ 4 400
2 200
0 0 10
0 5 10 0
Time, hour
Time, hour
Figure 8. Vessel pressu re time history during LHF-2 Figure 9. Vessel tempe rature time history during
experiment. LHF2 experi ment for the differe nt locations
measu red from the bottom center
0.30
8
Experiment
. EI. - plastic
0.10
- F u l l model
6
r_. _ -0.10
-0.30
2
l
.................... -0.50
o~~~~~~~~.-~.-~.-
o 50 100 150 200 250 300 o o .~ o o
o III ID CIl
d d d d d
time, min
Figure 10. Axial displa cemen t of the lowest vessel Figure 11. Calcul ated deform ation of pressu re vessel
point for LHF-2 test for LHF-2 expere ment at 145 min
1.0
1.0 ,--
'I
I
100.0 ~ 0.8 Density of the probability r I
- 0.8
~:::r 1=1::1 riD - = D T =1000 K I
III = ~~ -I J II D I = I =1 =1 J 0
~ 0.6 - 1- -I - ., -
I
, I - I- 0.6
0-
::2: 10.0
iii
~ ~~I_
I ~ I 111111
EI~I _!
I I I 11111
~I~I~
R
:.0
ro
.0
I
I
,
VI
CD
0-
W
1+11- - - =1=14
t=i 1= = ~ =1 =1
l'I,- -T -I -I "1
=t H
n
e
n. 0.4 - 1- -I - -t -
II
,
t-I - 1- 0.4
322
If we assume that in the formula (12) m does not
depend on temperature than the correlation presented Reactor Vessel Lower Head, Nucl.Technology, 100,
in Figure 12, should have the same slope in coordi- 1992.
nates ( In(t) -InC a) ) for different temperatures. This
4. Rempe, J.L., S.A.Chavez, G.L.Thinnes, et aI.,
line is presented in figure as a solid line. Otherwise,
Light Water Reactor Lower Head Failure Analysis.
if we use data obtained for each temperature inde-
NUREG/CR-5642. EGG-2618, 1993.
pendently, results will differ significantly as it is
shown in Figure 12 by dashed line. 5. T.G.Theofanous, C.Liu, S.Additon, et aI., In-
Vessel Coolablity and Retention of a Core Melt.
Simulation of the test with the data presented by
Proc. of the 24-th Water Reactor Safety Meeting
solid lines resulted in the vessel failure during the
NUREG/CP-OI57, Vo1.2, 1997.
first stage because estimated time to creep rupture is
about 0,6-0,8 hours. If parameters are chosen in ac- 6. T.Y.Chu, et aI., Experiment and Modeling of
cordance with dashed lines, time to creep rupture Creep Behavior of Reactor Pressure Vessel Lower
equals to two hours and vessel failure does not occur Head. OECD/CSNI Workshop on In-Vessel Core
during the first stage. Debris Retention and Coolability, Munich, 1998.
7. Drobyshevsky N .1., Zaytcev M.A., Filippov
4. SUMMARY
A.S. 2-D Computer code for Calculation of Quasi-
In the LHF-l uniformly heated test the failure static Loading of Nonlinearly Deformed Structures.
time and deformations predicted by FEM code are in Preprint NSI-28-93. Moscow:Nuclear Safety insti-
a reasonable agreement to the test data. Both elastic- tute, Oct. 1993. 15p.
plastic and creep models can be applied for analysis. 8. Arutyunyan, R.V., L.A.Bolshov, N.V.Yam-
In the LHF-2 test only creep model predicts reasona- shchikov & etc. Prediction of the lower head failure
bly test data. The reason for difference is in the dif- under severe accident. Transactions of the 13th in-
ferences of heating. Heated area in the second test ternational SMiRT Conference. Porte Alegre, Brasil,
was smaller due to bottom peaked heating, which led 13-18 August 1995, VoI.1,P.111-116.-
to the reduction of the area of intensive deformation
and as a consequence to the reduction of effective 9. L.Bolshov, R.Arutyunan, V .Strizov, N. Yam-
stress. This reduction was sufficient for stabilization shchikov, A.Boldyrev. Mechanical behavior simula-
of plastic state, and the character of deformation had tion of TMI-2 lower head using LOHEY module.
more pronounced creep nature. Transactions of the 14th International SMiRT Con-
ference. Lyon, France, 17-22 August 1997.
It was found in the simulations with both models
that results of LHF-2 experiments were very sensi- 10. Krieg R.D., Key S.W. Implementation of a
tive to accepted material properties. In particular, time independent plasticity theory into structural
both creep strain rate and time to creep rupture de- computer programs, ASME, AMD-20, 1976,
pend on the choice of temperature dependencies of pp.125-137.
parameters. Use of formulas (5) and (12) with pre-
exponential constant which did not depend on tem-
perature, did not allow to get reasonable agreement
with test data.
5. REFERENCES
323