Fatigue crack growth in austenitic stainless steel piping

The study presented in this paper is being carried out with a view to substantiating the calculations of the fatigue crack growth in pipes made of 316 L stainless steel. The results obtained may be applied to P.W.R. primary piping. It is divided into two parts. First, fatigue tests (cyclic pressure) are carried out under hot and cold conditions with straight pipes machined with notches of various dimensions. The crack propagation and the fatigue crack growth rate are measured here. Second, calculations are made in order to interpret experimental results. From elastic calculations the stress intensity factor is assessed to predict the crack growth rate. The results obtained until now and presented in this paper relate to longitudinal notches