Stress-intensity-factor influence coefficients for axial and circumferential flaws in reactor pressure vessels

Weight-function techniques in linear elastic fracture mechanics utilize stress-intensity-factor influence coefficients K* and superposition principles to compute stress intensity factors. This paper presents influence coefficients for two flaw geometries often employed in fracture analyses of reactor pressure vessels: (1) infinitely long, axial, inside-surface flaws and (2) 360 degrees, circumferential, inside-surface flaws. Calculations were performed using ABAQUS, a nuclear quality assurance (NQA-1) certified finite-element program which employs a highly accurate crack extension technique for the computation of theJ-integral. Influence coefficients are computed for flaw depths in the range 0.01 ≤ a/T ≤ 0.9 with particular emphasis on shallow flaws (a/T ≤ 0. 1). This study addresses vessels having R/T = 10 which is appropriate for most PWRs in USA. The influence coefficients have been implemented in the FAVOR fracture-mechanics code currently being developed under the NRC-funded HSST Program at ORNL