Estimates of the burst reliability of thin-walled cylinders designed to meet the ASME Code allowables

Pressure containment components in nuclear power plants are designed by the conventional deterministic safety factor approach to meet the requirements of the ASME Pressure Vessel Code, Section III. The inevitable variabilities and uncertainties associated with the design, manufacture, installation, and service processes suggest a probabilistic design approach may also be pertinent. Accordingly, the burst reliabilities of two thin-walled 304 SS cylindrical vessels such as might be employed in liquid metal plants are estimated. A large vessel fabricated from rolled plate per ASME SA-240 and a smaller pipe sized vessel also fabricated from rolled plate per ASME SA-358 are considered. The vessels are sized to just meet the allowable ASME Code primary membrance stresses at 8000F (4270C). The bursting probability that the operating pressure is greater than the burst strength of the cylinders is calculated using stress-strength interference theory by direct Monte Carlo simulation on a high speed digital computer. A sensitivity study is employed to identify those design parameters which have the greatest effect on the reliability. The effects of preservice quality assurance defect inspections on the reliability are also evaluated parametrically