Modelling of reactor pressure vessel subjected to pressurized thermal shock using 3D-XFEM

Thermomechanical Analysis of a Reactor Pressure Vessel under Pressurized Thermal Shock Caused by Inadvertent Actuation of the Safety Injection System

“…e RPV is manufactured from low-alloy ferritic steel, SA508 Class 3. Table 2 presents the key properties such as thermal conductivity (λ), elastic modulus (E), coefficient of thermal expansion (α), and specific heat capacity (C) of the RPV steel [11]. In addition, density, Poisson's ratio, and the vessel's material yield strength at room temperature are 7,600 kgm −3 , 0.3, and 450 MPa, respectively, as stated in [11,21].…”

“…Table 2 presents the key properties such as thermal conductivity (λ), elastic modulus (E), coefficient of thermal expansion (α), and specific heat capacity (C) of the RPV steel [11]. In addition, density, Poisson's ratio, and the vessel's material yield strength at room temperature are 7,600 kgm −3 , 0.3, and 450 MPa, respectively, as stated in [11,21]. Furthermore, the coefficients of thermal expansion are converted to the stressfree reference temperature of 289 °C based on the procedure proposed by M. Niffenegger et al [22].…”

“…e integrity analyses of a reactor pressure vessel under PA PTS scenarios using the TRACE-XFEM approach have been performed by Mora D. F. et al [10]. Also, Mora D. F. et al have modeled a reactor pressure vessel subjected to pressurized thermal shock using 3D-XFEM [11]. However, investigations on the thermomechanical characteristic change of an RPV's steel under PTS from anticipated transients are rarely studied, in spite of ATs relatively high occurrence in NPP operations [4,12,13].…”

Simulation and Analysis on Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) subjected to Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) under SBLOCA scenario by using Cardinal to support the fracture mechanics analyses

“…The analyses show that potential cracks straight below the nozzle of the cold leg obtain the highest stress intensity and that axial cracks have higher stress intensity factors than circumferential cracks. Diego, 2019 [10] uses a multi-step simulation scheme to simulate a large break LOCA scenario with a postulated guillotine break for the structural integrity analysis of RPV. The model is constructed for a reference design of the two-loop PWR, which includes the geometrical details of the walls, cold legs, core barrel and neutron shield.…”

Application of Finite Element Sub-modeling Techniques in Structural Mechanics

“…Sub-modeling technique was used to refine the mesh required by the fracture analysis in the region of interest of postulated cracks [12] in modelling of reactor pressure vessel subjected to pressurized thermal shock. Brittle fracture assessment of field welded tanks for storage of production liquids was performed by modeling the cleanout junction as a three-dimensional sub-model, using solid elements, driven by a three-dimensional model of the entire tanks using shell elements [13].…”