3-D Elastic Analysis of a Circular Nozzle Corner Crack

Abstract

A 3-D linear elastic analysis has been performed for a circular crack located in the nozzle corner region of a nuclear pressure vessel. The stress intensity factor, K , was found to be virtually constant along the crack front for this particular nozzle corner flaw, which extends one quarter of the distance through the nozzle corner diagonal. The magnitude of K is discussed in relation to the stress intensity factor for the ASME Maximum Postulated Flaw, and is compared to the results of a number of other analyses reported in the literature.