A probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) analysis code PASCAL-SP (Probabilistic Fracture Mechanics Analysis of Structural Components in Aging Light-Water Reactors - Stress-Corrosion Cracking at Welded Joints of Piping) has been developed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) for evaluating the failure probabilities of piping systems in nuclear power plants considering aged-related degradations including primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC). To strengthen the confidence of analysis results, benchmarking study is being performed with PFM analysis code xLPR (Extremely Low Probability of Rupture) which has been developed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s office (NRC) of Nuclear Regulatory Research in collaboration with the Electric Power Research Institute.

The benchmarking study consists of deterministic and probabilistic analyses on PWSCC under the common analysis conditions. In addition, probabilistic sensitivity analyses on influence factors such as weld residual stress distributions are also planning in the benchmark study. These analyses are carried out by NRC and JAEA independently using their own codes.

This paper describes the details of analysis conditions and analysis results in deterministic and probabilistic analyses. Through the comparison of the analysis results between the two codes at current stage, it can be concluded that both codes provide almost the same results including the stress intensity factor solutions, crack growth values and so on, in deterministic analyses.


Probabilistic Fracture Mechanics Benchmarking Study Involving the Xlpr and Pascal-Sp Codes -Analysis by Pascal-Sp-

Division / Sponsors: 
Pressure Vessels & Piping (PVP)


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/PVP/PVP2020/volume/83815

PVP2020 - Virtual Conference

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.