Transferability of Fracture Mechanical Characteristics

Five laboratories from France, Hungary and the Czech Republic have solved a Project supported fmancially by NATO within the Science for Peace Program (under Nr. 972655) for three years. The project, titled Fracture ResistanceofSteelsfor Containers of Spent Nuclear Fuel, was focused (i) on the generation of data needed for the qualification procedure of a new container introduced by Skoda Nuclear Machinery and (ii) on a number of topics of scientific nature associated with the interesting field of transferability of fracture mechanical data-, It has been found during numerous conference presentations of project results that the knowledge developed within the project would be more attractive when published in a more comprehensive form. This was the reason why the final project workshop was arranged as a meeting of project collaborators and contributing invited experts working in very similar field. The main scope of the final project workshop, titled Transferability of Fracture Mechanical Data and held in Brno from 5 to 6 November 200I, was to bring together project collaborators with a number of invited international experts, both covering the spectrum of topics solved within the project and reviewing the project results in the presence ofthese specialists. A totalof34 colleagues from 7 European countries and the USA participated in the workshop.

Proceedings of the NATO Final Project Workshop on Fracture Resistance of Steels for Containers of Spent Nuclear Fuel Arranged within Science for Peace Program, held in Brno, Czech Republic, from 5 to 6 November 2001

SKODA Cast Testing and Licensing Requirements.- Mechanical Properties of Cast Mn Steel after Intercritical Heat Treatment and Microalloying.- IAEA Requirements for Cask Testing and Short Summary of Developments at GNB.- Fracture Resistance of Cast Ferritic C-Mn Steel for Container of Spent Nuclear Fuel.- Micromechanical Aspects of Constraint Effect at Brittle Fracture Initiation.- Problems in Q-parameter Calculations.- Construction of J-Q Locus for Material of Reactor Pressure Vessel WWER 440 in the Ductile-Brittle Transition Region.- The Use of the Local Approach for the Brittle Fracture Prediction.- On the Application of the Beremin Model for Predicting the Brittle Fracture Resistance.- Physical Fundamentals of Local Approach to Analysis of Cleavage Fracture.- Probability of Brittle Fracture in Low Alloy Steels.- Damage Mechanisms and Local Approach to Fracture Part I: Ductile fracture.- Damage Mechanisms and Local Approach to Fracture Part II: Brittle fracture prediction in the ductile to brittle transition.- Toughness Scaling Model Applications.- Relation of Fracture Energy of Sub-sized Charpy Specimens to Standard Charpy Energy and Fracture Toughness.- Master Curve Methodology and Data Transfer from Small on Standard Specimens.- Master Curve Validity for Dynamic Fracture Toughness Characteristics.- Evaluation of Strain Rate Effects on Transition Behaviour Applying the Master Curve Methodology.- Dynamic Fracture Toughness Determination of Large SE(B) Specimens.- Fracture Toughness Behaviour of Thick-Walled Nodular Cast Iron at Elevated Loading Rates.- Finite Element Modelling of Charpy Impact Testing.- Notch Sensitivity Analysis on Fracture Toughness.- Quantification of Notch Effects - in Brittle-Ductile Transition.- Brittle Mixed Mode Fracture I+II: EmanatingFrom Notches. - Equivalent Notch Stress Intensity Factor - H..- Safety of the Steam Generator Cover: A PSA Case Study.