EPFM verification by a large scale test

Step B test was carried out as one of the elastic plastic fracture mechanics (EPFR) study in Japanese PTS integrity research project. In step B test bending load was applied to the large flat specimen with thermal shock. Tensile load was kept constant during the test. Estimated stable crack growth at the deepest point of the crack was 3 times larger than the experimental value in the previous analysis. In order to diminish the difference between them from the point of FEM modeling, more precise FEM mesh was introduced. According to the new analysis, the difference considerably decreased. That is, stable crack growth evaluation was improved by adopting precise FEM model near the crack tip and the difference was almost same order as that in the NKS4-1 test analysis by MPA. 8 refs., 17 figs., 5 tabs