Comparison of Results of Instrumented Charpy- and Mini-Charpy Tests with Different RPV-Steels

Current activities to standardize the instrumented Charpy test (proposed procedure recently accepted by ISO) and to propose a standardized procedure for instrumented subsized Charpy tests are the background of several round robin exercises of ASTM, ESIS and DVM. The IWM-results are presented here in a comparative manner, together with results of a similar reactor pressure vessel steel under investigation at IWM. Relations between results of full-size and subsized specimens for standardized data, like absorbed energies or transition temperatures, are discussed. Sufficient accuracy and reproducibility of the force-measurements were observed. Different possibilities to evaluate the percentage of shear fracture or to obtain dynamic crack resistance data are also demonstrated. Accuracy and limitations of these advanced evaluations are discussed.