| Popis: |
Data availability: Data will be made available on request. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Corner cracks are one of the common forms of flaws in the reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) of nuclear power plants (NPPs). Accurate evaluation of the driving force of such corner cracks is essential and critical for the efficient design and integrity assessment of the RPVs. In this study, the combined effect of the depth, length and angle of a given corner crack under the service loading was analyzed using elastic–plastic finite element analysis (EPFEA). Based on the consideration of the distribution profiles of stress intensity factor (SIF) and J integral as the crack growth along corner crack front, the crack growth stability with various crack shapes and angles was analyzed. Finite element analysis (FEA) results showed that the crack growth driving force is affected by the shape and angle of the initial crack. It is also found that the sliding mode (mode II) crack or tearing mode (mode III) crack should be taken into account in the structural integrity analysis of RPVs. This work was financially supported by the Guangdong Major Project of Fundamental and Applied Fundamental Research, China (2019B030302011), International Exchanges Programme Scheme project jointly by the Royal Society, UK (IEC\NSFC\170551) and National Natural Science Foundation, China (51811530311), Xi’an Jiaotong University State Key Lab for Strengths and Vibration for Mechanical Structures Open Lab Project, China (SV2017-KF-25), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, China (2022MD723825), Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province, China (2023-JC-QN-0474). |
