The zero-to-tension ratchetting behavior was investigated under uniaxial loading at room temperature and at 550, 600, and 650°C. In History I the maximum stress level of ratchetting was equal to the stress reached in a tensile test at one percent strain. For History II the maximum stress level was established as the stress reached after a 2100 s relaxation at one percent strain. Significant ratchetting was observed for History I at room temperature but not at the elevated temperatures. The accumulated ratchet strain increases with decreasing stress rate. Independent of the stress rates used insignificant ratchet strain was observed at room temperature for History II. This observation is explained in the context of the viscoplasticity theory based on overstress by the exhaustion of the viscous contribution to the stress during relaxation. The viscous part of the stress is the driving force for the ratchetting in History I. Strain aging is presumably responsible for the lack of short-time inelastic deformation resulting in a nearly rate-independent behavior at the elevated temperatures.
An interim high-temperature flaw assessment procedure is described. This is a result of a collaborative effort between Electric Power Research Institute in the US, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry in Japan, and Nuclear Electric plc in the UK. The procedure addresses pre-existing defects subject to creep-fatigue loading conditions. Laws employed to calculate the crack growth per cycle are defined in terms of fracture mechanics parameters and constants related to the component material. The crack growth laws may be integrated to calculate the remaining life of a component or to predict the amount of crack extension in a given period. Fatigue and creep crack growth per cycle are calculated separately, and the total crack extension is taken as the simple sum of the two contributions. An interaction between the two propagation modes is accounted for in the material properties in the separate calculations. In producing the procedure, limitations of the approach have been identified. Some of these limitations are to be addressed in an extension of the current collaborative program.
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