Effect of Loading Rate on Fracture Toughness of Pressure Vessel Steels

Abstract

The master curve method has recently been developed to determine fracture toughness in the brittle-to-ductile transition range. This method was successfully applied to numerous fracture toughness data sets of pressure vessel steels. Joyce (Joyce, J. A., 1997, “On the Utilization of High Rate Charpy Test Results and the Master Curve to Obtain Accurate Lower Bound Toughness Predictions in the Ductile-to-Brittle Transition, Small Specimen Test Techniques,” Small Specimens Test Technique, ASTM STP 1329, W. R. Corwin, S. T. Rosinski, and E. Van Walle, eds., ASTM, West Conshohocken, PA) applied this method to high loading rate fracture toughness data for SA-515 steel and showed the applicability of this approach to dynamic fracture toughness data. In order to investigate the shift in fracture toughness from static to dynamic data, B&W Owners Group tested five weld materials typically used in reactor vessel fabrication in both static and dynamic loading. The results were analyzed using ASTM Standard E 1921 (ASTM, 1998, Standard E 1921-97, “Standard Test Method for the Determination of Reference Temperature, T0, for Ferritic Steels in the Transition Range,” 1998 Annual Book of ASTM Standards, 03.01 , American Society for Testing and Materials, West Conshohocken, PA). This paper presents the data and the resulting reference temperature shifts in the master curves from static to high loading rate fracture toughness data. This shift in the toughness curve with the loading rate selected in this test program and from the literature is compared with the shift between KIc and KIa curves in ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. In addition, data from the B&W Owners Group test of IAEA JRQ material and dynamic fracture toughness data from the Pressure Vessel Research Council (PVRC) database (Van Der Sluys, W. A., Yoon, K. K., Killian, D. E., and Hall, J. B., 1998, “Fracture Toughness of Ferritic Steels and ASTM Reference Temperature (T0),” BAW-2318, Framatome Technologies. Lynchburg, VA) are also presented. It is concluded that the master curve shift due to loading rate can be addressed with the shift between the current ASME Code KIc and KIa curves. [S0094-9930(00)01302-0]