The precracked Charpy single-edge notched bend, SE(B), specimen (PCC) is the most likely specimen type to be used for determination of the reference temperature, T0, with reactor pressure vessel (RPV) surveillance specimens. Unfortunately, for many RPV steels, significant differences have been observed between the T0 temperature for the PCC specimen and that obtained from the 25-mm thick compact specimen [1TC(T)], generally considered the standard reference specimen for T0. This difference in T0 has often been designated a specimen bias effect, and the primary focus for explaining this effect is loss of constraint in the PCC specimen. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has developed a coordinated research project (CRP) to evaluate various issues associated with the fracture toughness Master Curve for application to light-water RPVs. Topic Area 1 of the CRP is focused on the issue of test specimen geometry effects, with emphasis on determination of T0 with the PCC specimen and the bias effect. Topic Area 1 has an experimental part and an analytical part. Participating organizations for the experimental part of the CRP performed fracture toughness testing of various steels, including the reference steel JRQ (A533-B-1) often used for IAEA studies, with various types of specimens under various conditions. Additionally, many of the participants took part in a round robin exercise on finite element modeling of the PCVN specimen, discussed in a separate paper. Results from fracture toughness tests are compared with regard to effects of specimen size and type on the reference temperature T0. It is apparent from the results presented that the bias observed between the PCC specimen and larger specimens for Plate JRQ is not nearly as large as that obtained for Plate 13B (−11°C vs −37°C) and for some of the results in the literature (bias values as much as −45°C). This observation is consistent with observations in the literature that show significant variations in the bias that are dependent on the specific materials being tested. There are various methods for constraint adjustments and two methods were used that reduced the bias for Plate 13B from −37°C to −13°C in one case and to − 11°C in the second case. Unfortunately, there is not a consensus methodology available that accounts for the differences observed with different materials. Increasing the Mlim value in the ASTM E-1921 to ensure no loss of constraint for the PCC specimen is not a practicable solution because the PCC specimen is derived from CVN specimens in RPV surveillance capsules and larger specimens are normally not available. Resolution of these differences are needed for application of the master curve procedure to operating RPVs, but the research needed for such resolution is beyond the scope of this CRP.
There is strong interest from the nuclear industry to use the precracked Charpy single-edge notched bend, SE(B), specimen (PCVN) to enable determination of the reference temperature, T0, with reactor pressure vessel surveillance specimens. Unfortunately, for many different ferritic steels, tests with the PCVN specimen (10×10×55 mm) have resulted in T0 temperatures up to 25°C lower than T0 values obtained using data from compact, C(T), specimens. This difference in T0 reference temperature has often been designated a specimen bias effect, and the primary focus for explaining this effect is loss of constraint in the PCVN specimen. The International Atomic Energy Agency has developed a three-part coordinated research project (CRP) to evaluate various issues associated with the fracture toughness Master Curve for application to light-water reactor pressure vessels. One part of the CRP is focused on the issue of test specimen geometry effects, with emphasis on the PCVN bias. This topic area was organized in two parts, an experimental part and an analytical part with a view towards each part complementing the other. Within the analytical part, elastic plastic finite element methods are extensively used in order to access local stress and strain information that is the basic ingredient for most of the micromodels of cleavage fracture developed to date. In the framework of the international qualification and acceptance of such a tool for actual loss of constraint prediction, the validation of such tool is of prime importance. Therefore, a round robin exercise has been proposed and performed by ten laboratories from nine different countries. The round robin focuses on the modeling of realistic three-dimensional geometries containing shallow and deep crack. This round robin has been useful to qualify different finite element codes and to identify possible errors in the input file. The round robin demonstrates that errors in the input file can be easily introduced. Some remaining differences cannot be attributed to one particular finite element code or to actual errors. Those differences are attributed to the so called “user effect” which can only be reduced through in depth discussion and deep understanding of each finite element code. Independently of the used code and of relatively small user effect differences, it is found that shallow crack specimens are more sensitive to loss of constraint than deep crack specimens for a given specimen size. The difference in terms of reference temperature between the two geometries is evaluated to be about 40 °C. For a deep crack, loss of constraint is identified to appear at M values around 200. This value is larger than the one specified in current standard (M = 30). Increasing the M value to 200 will jeopardize the use of PCVN for the nuclear industry on the other hand bias introduced by M value of 30 is acceptable.
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