Creep damage evaluation of thick-walled spheres using a long-term creep constitutive model

This paper describes a numerical model developed for the computation of creep damages in a thick-walled sphere subjected to an internal pressure and a thermal gradient. The model predicts the creep damage histories during the life of the sphere, owing to variations in stresses with time and through-thickness variations. The creep damage fraction is based on the Robinson's linear life fraction damage rule, which has been incorporated in a nonlinear time-dependent stress analysis. Following the stress histories, the effective stress histories are obtained and the creep damages are calculated and summed during the life of the sphere. The material long-term creep properties up to the rupture and creep rupture data are defined by the Θ projection concept. The damage histories up to 38 years are calculated and the results show that the maximum damages are always located at the inner surface of the sphere, while the outer surface of the vessel sustains minimum damages