Development of damage evaluation method on the brittle materials for constructions using microscopic structural dynamics and probability theory

The conventional stress analysis evaluation of the ceramic apparatuses is due to a perfect model of continuous mechanical materials. Such approximate and simplified treatment is thought to be unsufficient with the following two reasons. At first, because of changes of materials mechanical properties with manufacturing conditions and presence of limit in experimentalismic understanding, establishment of quantitative guideline for improvement of materials and structures and general understanding of thermo-mechanical property change due to neutron radiation becomes difficult. The second, because of statistical change of mechanical property and others containing fracture condition at various loading types, judgement standard of conventional deterministic evaluation is apt to be conservative and causes inferior performance and economics of the constructions under their using conditions. Therefore, in this study, following two basic approaches are planned; 1) Preparation of material deformation and fracture model considering correlation between microscopic/mesoscopic damage and macroscopic behavior, and 2) Improvement of the finite element method calculation due to parallel treatment for soundness and reliability evaluation of the construction. (G.K.)