Residual stress relief and local embrittlement in a A533B reactor pressure vessel weldment

A suitable testing technique is developed for evaluating the effect of weld residual stress on fracture toughness in the heat affected zone region of a reactor pressure vessel steel (SA533 Grade B, class 1) and for investigating its susceptibility to reheat and underclad cracking or local embrittlement in the coarse-grained HAZs during post weld heat treatment. Use of a fracture mechanics approach leads to an interpretation of the effect of weld residual stress, tempering due to post weld heat treatment and notch acuity on the HAZ fracture toughness. This is applied to the estimation of crack opening displacement transition temperature in the actual component of the reactor pressure vessel in terms of a summation of the various changes in the COD transition temperature associated with several factors such as weld residual stress, tempering, notch acuity and environment. Detailed comments are given on the determination of an allowable crack size in an actual component. (author)