Metal Fatigue & Fracture Mechanics in the Nuclear Power Industry

A Two Day Course
October 27-28, 2008

Location:

Entergy-Palisades Nuclear Plant
South Haven Conference Center
410 Blue Star Highway
South Haven, MI 49090


Fatigue of metal components has been shown to be one of the key contributors, if not the prime contributor, to the degradation of aging plant components. Fracture mechanics provides a tool to determine the fitness for continued operation of piping or components that contain flaws. Designers and systems engineers can apply the knowledge gained from this course to in-house design, replacement, or re-evaluation decisions of plant components.

Participants are encouraged to bring any fatigue or fracture mechanics problems to the course. The instructors will use them as sample problems and you just might go back home with a very cost-effective solution in hand!

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Metal Fatigue & Fracture Mechanics in the Nuclear Power Industry Course Outline

Fatigue Usage Factor Calculation:               (over all transient range pairs) where:  n = design basis number of occurrences for each transient range pair. N = allowable number of cycles for each transient range pair from the applicable design fatigue curve.

Figure 1. Illustration of ASME Code, Section III Fatigue Usage Factor Calculation

Metal Fatigue - Fatigue of metal components has been shown to be one of the key contributors, if not the prime contributor, to the degradation of aging plant components. Application of modern fatigue design principles, fatigue monitoring, and fatigue management programs permit plants to achieve their design lives and provide the basis for plant life extension.

The metal fatigue portion of this course is designed to increase personnel understanding of the theoretical and practical aspects of fatigue, fatigue failure mechanisms, compliance with regulations, fatigue management tools, and fatigue/cycle monitoring.

Fracture Mechanics - Fracture mechanics (FM) provides a tool to determine the fitness for continued operation of piping or components that contain flaws. The FM portion of this course explains FM basics, including linear elastic FM (LEFM), elastic-plastic FM (EPFM), and limit load analyses, as well as their application to the nuclear industry. Procedures for flaw evaluation, as outlined in ASME Section XI, can be combined with the concepts taught in this course to give a thorough understanding of flaw evaluation criteria.

Figure 2. Basic Criterion of Fracture Mechanics

Structural Integrity's pc-CRACK fracture mechanics computer program is also introduced as a tool for solving fracture mechanics problems.

COURSE TOPICS

• Stress & Fatigue Analysis Fundamentals
• Life Estimates, Code Background, and Code Design
• Code Conservatisms and Industry Issues
• Fatigue Monitoring
• ASME Code Fatigue Evaluation
• LEFM Applications
• Limit Load & Elastic-Plastic Fracture Mechanics
• EPFM Applications
• ASME Code Section XI Flaw Evaluation

INSTRUCTORS

Hal Gustin, PE, an Associate at Structural Integrity Associates received his BSME and MSME from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has over 30 years of experience in fracture mechanics and power plant systems.

Tim Griesbach

To register for this course, CLICK HERE.