Aspects of brittle failure assessment for RPV

This paper describes the process of pressurized thermal shock analysis (PTS) and brittle failure assessment for the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) of the nuclear power plants NECKAR I/II. The thermo-hydraulic part of the assessment provides the boundary conditions for the fracture mechanics analysis. In addition to the one dimensional thermo-hydraulic simulations CFD, analyses were carried out for selected transients. An extensive evaluation of material properties is necessary to provide the input data for a reliable fracture mechanics assessment. For the core weld and the flange weld it has shown that brittle crack initiation can be precluded for all considered load cases. For the cold and hot leg nozzle detailed linear-elastic and elasticplastic Finite Element Analyses (FEA) are performed to verify the integrity of the RPV. (orig.)