Mechanical and Nondestructive Testing of Irradiated Half Charpy Specimens

Abstract

After the five scheduled surveillance testings of WWER-440-type reactor pressure vessels, 5 × 36 half Charpy and 5 × 36 Charpy size crack-opening displacement (COD) specimen pieces remain. These can be used for further testing to obtain more information on aging or annealing. Two methods using these specimen remnants are described. The Barkhausen noise measurement is a promising way to get more information on aging by nondestructive testing. On the subsize tensile bars cut from these remnant pieces, tensile properties and absorbed specific energy of fracture (ASFE) can be measured. By comparison of smooth and sharply notched specimens, true toughness value can probably be predicted, and the effect of thermal annealing can be studied.