NEEP 541

Design of Irradiated Structures

Fall 2002
Jake Blanchard
Outline
 Design of Irradiated Structures
 ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code
 Loads
 Limits
 Examples
ASME Boiler and Pressure
Vessel Code
 Designed to enhance safety of pressure
vessels
 1600 explosions of boilers from 1898 to 1903
(killing 1200 people)
 Code was adopted in 1915
 It has been continuously revised and
enhanced ever since
 It does not cover corrosion, erosion,
instabilities, etc.
Organization of Code
I. Power Boilers
II. Material Specifications
III. General requirements (Nuclear Components)
 Division 1 (Class 1, 2, 3 and Supports)
 Division 2 (Concrete Reactor Vessels and Containments)
IV. Heating boilers
V. Nondestructive examination
VI. Care and Operation of Heating Boilers
VII. Care of Power Boilers
VIII. Pressure Vessels
IX. Welding and Brazing
X. Fiberglass-Reinforced Plastic Pressure Vessels
XI. Inservice Inspection
Component Classification
 Purpose: recognizes different levels of
importance in relation to safety
 Owner is responsible for classification
 10-CFR-50 requires that components of
reactor coolant pressure bounday be
class 1
 Others defined with respect to
consequences of failure
Design Basis
 Design conditions
 Pressure, temperature, mechanical loads
 Service limits
 Level A: normal
 Level B: highly probable, unplanned, component
must withstand damage and continue to operate
without service
 Level C: low probability, unplanned, must be
recoverable, but may require repair
 Level D: component may suffer gross deformation
Loading
 Bulk heating: Level A
 Coolant pressure: level A
 Surface flux on cladding or first wall:
level A
 Seismic loads: level B or C
 Transients: level B, C, or D
 Types of Stresses
Stresses

Primary Secondary Peak

Stress Stress Stress

membrane bending membrane bending

Definitions
 Primary Stress=any stress developed by
an imposed load which is necessary to
satisfy equilibrium of external forces
and moments
 Not self-limiting
 Examples include pressure and dead-
weight
Definitions
 Secondary Stress=any stress developed
by constraint of adjacent material or
self-constraint
 Self-Limiting
 Examples include thermal stresses
Definitions
 Peak Stress=an increment of stress
over and above the primary and
secondary stresses, caused by
discontinuities or local thermal stress
 No gross deformation
 Can be a concern with respect to cracking
 Examples include stresses near
discontinuities (holes, for instance)
Definitions
 Membrane Stress=any stress which is
uniform over the thickness of a thin
component
 Bending Stress=any stress which varies
linearly over the thickness of a thin
component
Allowable Stresses
 The stress limits in the code are based
on the yield, ultimate, and creep
strengths, with appropriate safety
factors
 The fundamental limit is that the stress
should be less than the minimum of Sm
and St
 Definitions

 1 / 3 ultimate @ Room Temperature

1 / 3 ultimate @ Operating Temperature

S m  min 
 1 / 2 yield @ Room Temperature
 1 / 2 yield @ Operating Temperature
 2 / 3 min stress to rupture

St  min  100% min stress to 1% strain
80% min stress to tertiary creep

Design Stress varies with
Service Level
Level Allowable Primary Stress

A Pm<Sm
PL+PB<1.5 Sm
B Same as A

C Pm<1.2 Sm
PL+PB<1.8 Sm
Design Stress varies with
Service Level
Level Allowable Primary+Secondary
Stress
A 3Sm

B Same as A

C No Limit
 Why are Primary Stresses
Worse?
 Consider a perfectly plastic material
 Compare failure due to both a constant
force loading and a constant strain
loading
stress
YS

strain
Comparison
 For constant load, a force that causes a stress
just beyond the yield stress will cause failure
 For constant strain, a strain that causes a
strain just beyond the yield strain will still be
far from the failure strain
 Pressure stresses are analogous to constant
load, while thermal strains are analogous to
constant strain
 Why is Bending More Forgiving in
Terms of Allowable Stress?
 Consider a beam with an applied
moment y

M M
stress
Bending (continued)
 Peak stresses are at edge
 When the beam begins to yield, only the
edges will yield and the central portion of the
beam will still be elastic (and able to support
load)
 Hence, a beam under pure bending can safely
go further beyond the yield point that
something experiencing a membrane load
 This is only true for ductile materials!
 Biaxial Stresses
 Everything discussed so
far assumes that stresses
are uniaxial
 Stress is actually a tensor,
so it has three normal
components and three
shear components
Yield Theories
 There are two theories for yielding under
multiaxial stress states
 Maximum Shear (Tresca): yielding occurs
when the maximum shear stress reaches a
critical value
 The maximum shear can be found by taking
the difference of the largest and smallest
principle stresses (yielding when 1-3=YS)
 Yield Theories
 Von Mises: yielding occurs when
equivalent stress reaches the yield
stress

 eq 
1
 xx   yy
2
   zz   yy
2
   xx   zz
2
  6 2
xy   2
xz   2
zy 
2
ASME Code Approach
 The Code uses stress intensity
 Stress intensity= 1-3
 All previous allowable stress limits are
valid if stress is replaced by stress
intensity
Example