Fatigue Life Evaluation for Nuclear Power Plant Using Green’s Function and Real Operating Histories

Abstract

In general, the fatigue life of major nuclear components has been evaluated based on design codes conservatively. However, sometimes, more exact fatigue life evaluation is required for continued operation beyond the endorsed life. The purpose of this paper is to carry out 3-D stress and fatigue analyses reflecting full geometry as well as actual operating data. The actual operating data acquired through a monitoring system were filtered and assessed. Then, temperature and stress transfer Green’s functions were developed and applied to critical locations of reactor pressure vessel. The finite element analyses results for representative design transients were verified through comparison to reference solution and showed that the conservatism of current 2-D evaluation. Therefore, it is anticipated that the proposed scheme adopting Green’s function and real operating histories can be utilized for remaining life time evaluation of major components.