Evaluation of fracture models through pressurized-thermal-shock testing

Two multiple-transient pressurized-thermal-shock experiments (PTSEs) have been conducted under the NRC-sponsored Heavy-Section Steel Technology (HSST) program. The first test (PTSE-1) employed an SA-508 class 2 steel with high Charpy upper-shelf energy level and a relatively high brittle-to-ductile transition temperature. The second test (PTSE-2) used a 2 1/4 Cr-1 Mo steel (SA-387 grade 22) that had been given a special heat treatment to yield a low Charpy upper-shelf energy level and attendant low tearing resistance. Each experiment included two combined thermal and pressure transients that give rise to propagation and arrest of an initial long flaw that extended about 10% through the thick wall of the test cylinder. Both materials exhibited the ability to inhibit crack propagation by warm prestressing, high initiation toughness values and high crack-arrest toughness values. Cleavage initiation and arrest are modeled well by available fracture theories. However, calculations of ductile tearing based on resistance curves did not consistently predict the observed tearing.