Deterministic Fracture Mechanics Analysis of Nuclear Reactor Pressure Vessel Under Rot Leg Leak Accident

In a nuclear power plant, reactor pressure vessel (RPV) is the primary pressure boundary component that must be protected against failure. The neutron irradiation on RPV in the beltline region, however, tends to cause localized damage accumulation, leading to crack initiation and propagation which raises RPV integrity issues. The objective of this paper is to estimate the integrity of RPV under hot leg leaking accident by applying the finite element analysis. In this paper, a parametric study was performed for various crack configurations based on 3-dimensional finite element models. The crack configuration, the crack orientation, the crack aspect ratio and the clad thickness were considered in the parametric study. The effect of these parameters on the maximum allowable nil-ductility transition reference temperature (RT,NDT) was investigated on the basis of finite element analyses.