Structural Integrity and Lifetime Prediction of Engineering Materials and Structures - Research Article

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

2019, Vol. 11(12) 1–8
Ó The Author(s) 2019
Weibull stress analysis for the corner DOI: 10.1177/1687814019893567
journals.sagepub.com/home/ade
crack in reactor pressure vessel nozzle

Ting Jin1,2, Zihang Wang1, Qiwei Wang1, Dasheng Wang2, Yuebing Li1
and Mingjue Zhou1

Abstract
The nozzle region of a reactor pressure vessel experiences higher and more complex stresses than the remaining part
of the reactor pressure vessel. If a corner crack is postulated in the nozzle region, it is necessary to consider the poten-
tial strong influence of constraint on fracture behavior due to inelastic deformations of crack tip. In accordance with the
requirement of probabilistic fracture mechanics, Weibull stress in local approach to fracture is analyzed with the consid-
eration of constraint effect. Conventional fracture analysis is also carried out using a three-dimensional crack model, and
the fracture driving forces (KI and J) and T-stress are obtained. Weibull stress along the crack tip is also computed by
three-dimensional models. The modified boundary layer model with plastic correction is developed for a corner crack in
the reactor pressure vessel nozzle. Under the J-T stress field from three-dimensional models, Weibull stress values
obtained using the modified boundary layer model are compared and discussed with that by three-dimensional models.
It is found that the modified boundary layer model can effectively predict the Weibull stress under the J-T stress field,
which simplified the Weibull stress calculation process for complex structures.

Keywords
Local approach, constraint, Weibull stress, corner crack

Date received: 16 July 2019; accepted: 8 November 2019

Handling Editor: José Correia

Introduction used to develop PTS screening criteria and pressure–

The potential failure by cleavage fracture is a key issue
in the structural integrity assessment of reactor pressure
vessels (RPVs) in nuclear power plants. RPVs experi-
ence a wide range of pressurized thermal shock (PTS)
transients that impose severe cooling concurrent with
or followed by significant pressure changes in the ves-
sel. Combined with a reduction of fracture toughness
from years of radiation embrittlement, PTS transients
pose a potentially significant challenge to the structural
integrity of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) during the
long-time operation.1 In addition, the safety goals of
operating nuclear plants are usually defined by core
damage frequency and large early release frequency of
fission products, which need probability risk assess-
ment. Therefore, probabilistic fracture mechanics is
temperature limit.2
The failure criterion in the probabilistic assessment
of RPV integrity employs conventional linear elastic
fracture mechanics by comparison of crack driving
forces (such as stress intensity factor KI) calculated for
assessed points along the crack front with its allowable
1
Institute of Process Equipment and Control Engineering, Zhejiang
University of Technology, Hangzhou, China
2
State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Power Safety Monitoring Technology
and Equipment, China Nuclear Power Engineering Co., Ltd, Shenzhen,
China
Corresponding author:
Mingjue Zhou, Institute of Process Equipment and Control Engineering,
Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310032, China.
Email: zhoumingjue@zjut.edu.cn

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2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
value (fracture toughness KIC or KIa).3,4 There are
many uncertainties that should be considered including
material chemical composition, mechanical properties,
loads, crack sizes, and so on. Monte Carlo techniques
are usually used to estimate the increase in failure prob-
ability as the vessel accumulates radiation damage over
its operating life.5 The conventional methodology
clearly simplifies structural integrity assessment, but it
has limited ability to predict the potential strong influ-
ence of constraint on fracture behavior due to inelastic
deformations of crack tip.6 In general, a second (e.g.
J-T, J-Q, and J-A2) parameter can be used to quantify
the crack tip constraint of engineering structures.
However, probabilistic assessment requires a huge
number of finite element (FE) analyses to obtain these
parameters, particularly for Monte Carlo simulation.
The local approaches to cleavage fracture consider
the local crack driving force and material properties in
the fracture process zone (FPZ), which have been
applied to constraint corrections. The local crack driv-
ing force couples the (local) fracture stress with remote
loading (such as the J-integrity) in terms of the Weibull
stress sw as a probabilistic fracture parameter directly
connected to the statistics of microcracks. Ruggieri and
Dodds7 summarized recent advances in the local
approach to cleavage fracture modeling, illustrated by
selected examples of application to predict constraint
effects on cleavage fracture toughness for typical pres-
sure vessel steels. Qian et al.8 compared crack tip con-
straints in different specimens and structures with
global and local approaches under uniaxial and biaxial
loadings. The advantage of local approaches is that
Weibull stress can be transferred from one constraint
level to another according to the failure probability.9
Therefore, the failure probability can be easily obtained
by Weibull stress.
Nevertheless, calculation of Weibull stress is the key
of the application of the local approaches, which
requires detailed elastic–plastic FE analysis of three-
dimensional (3D) RPV models containing cracks.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop a simplified calcu-
lation method to predict Weibull stress for these 3D
models. Some approximate two-dimensional (2D) mod-
els have been proposed,10–12 such as the modified
boundary layer (MBL) model, single-edge notched ten-
sion model, and axial cross-section cylinder model. It
should be ensured that asymptotic stress fields near the
crack tip of a 2D crack model are similar to those of a
3D crack model.13 However, as the plastic zone in the
MBL model increases in size, the crack front stress field
never interacts with the geometric boundary of the
model.
The RPV is mainly composed of a cylinder, shell
cover, nozzle, and various components. The nozzle is a
component that connects the RPV cylinder and the
pipe, and includes geometrically irregular corners
connected to the cylinder. Therefore, the nozzle region
of an RPV experiences higher and more complex stress
conditions than the remaining components of the RPV.
In this article, the MBL model with plastic correction is
developed for a corner crack in the RPV nozzle under
internal pressure. Conventional fracture analysis is car-
ried out using a 3D crack model, and the fracture driv-
ing forces (KI and J) and T-stress are obtained. Weibull
stress along the crack tip is also computed by 3D mod-
els. Under the J-T stress field, Weibull stress values
obtained using the MBL model are compared and dis-
cussed with that by 3D models.
Weibull stress and constraint
Weibull stress model
Under the action of external load, the local stress con-
centration will be caused when the crack tip or the FPZ
of the tip is deformed plastically, which will cause dislo-
cation and slip movement of the tiny carbide particles
and impurities existing in the material and form micro-
cracks. Due to the local heterogeneity of the micro-
structure in the actual material, in the case of
continuous plastic deformation, a large number of
microcracks with random distribution and different
sizes are formed in the fracture process area. Therefore,
the fracture resistance of the material and the shape,
size, and direction distribution of carbide particles or
impurities in the material determine the failure prob-
ability of the material.14,15 For this reason, the Weibull
stress sw is proposed by Beremin group and defined as
the two-parameter cumulative failure probability of the
driving stress of crack tip extension in the usual
sense7,16
  m 
sw
Pf = 1  exp  ð1Þ
su
where m and su are Weibull modulus and scale para-
meters depended on the material properties and tem-
perature. The driving force sw of the crack tip is
defined as
ð
1
sm
w = ðs1 Þm dV ð2Þ
V0
Vp
where V0 represents the reference volume and takes a
value of unity here for simplicity. Vp stands for FPZ,
which is defined as
s1 ø ls0 ð3Þ
where s1 and s0 is the maximum principal stress and
the uniaxial tensile yield stress, respectively. The coeffi-
cient l defines the FPZ range. In general, l = 2 is
Jin et al. 3

Figure 1. The diagram of crack front for total and local

Weibull stress.

adopted.12,17 According to the FE results, Weibull

stress is calculated by

ð1 ð1 ð1
1 X
sm
w = sm
1 j J jdh1 dh2 dh3 ð4Þ
V0 ne Figure 2. The diagram of corner crack.
1 1 1

where ne represents the number of units in the rupture

process zone and j J j represents the Jacobian determi-
Table 1. Material properties.
nant transformed from the Cartesian coordinate system
(x1, x2, x3) to the local coordinate system (h1, h2, h3). E s0 n a
For the relationship between Weibull stress and
stress intensity factors, total Weibull stress and local 200 GPa 450 MPa 10 1
Weibull stress are defined in this work. The total
Weibull stress is defined by the FPZ which adopts the
volume domain containing the overall crack front. The FE modeling
local Weibull stress is calculated at crack tip with the
FPZ of the region perpendicular to the crack front, RPV nozzle with corner crack
which is similar to the calculation of J-integrity for 3D A typical RPV with corner crack near the nozzle was
crack models. A diagrammatic sketch is shown in modeled in this article. To simplify the problem, the
Figure 1. The FPZ for total Weibull stress uses the cylinder is assumed to be made of parent material with-
summary of all the regions A1 to An, which for local out weld and cladding. A semicircle surface crack with
Weibull stress only for a single region. crack depth a = 25 mm is postulated in the corner of
the nozzle,20,21 as shown in Figure 2. The center of the
crack is located at the boundary of the corner of the
Constraint based on fracture mechanics pressure vessel.
Neglecting higher order terms of the Williams exten- The material of the RPV is usually made of ferritic
sion,18 the elastic stress field can be expressed in the low alloy steel. A Ramberg–Osgood model (deforma-
form tion plasticity model) is used to describe the stress–
strain relationship of the material
KI
sij = pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi fij ðuÞ + T d1i d1j ð5Þ  n
2pr e s s
= +a ð6Þ
e0 s0 s0
The T-stress is the second term in the Williams
expansion and is used for in-plane constraint analysis. where s0 is the yield stress, e0 = s0 =E, E is the elastic
Karstensen et al.19 showed J-T characterization of modulus, and n and a are material constants. Table 1
crack tip stress fields failed at high levels of deforma- lists the values of these parameters used for elastic–
tion. However, the plastic zone radii under the design plastic analysis.22
cases are certainly small as compared to the thickness In this article, geometry constraint under mechanical
of RPV,5 indicating the appropriateness of J-T load is considered. As was reported, that the geometry
characterization. constraint interacts with the constraint induced by the
residual stress23,24 or thermal stresses.25 Therefore,
4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 3. FE model of RPV nozzle with a corner crack.

Figure 4. MBL model (a) whole model mesh and (b) local mesh around the crack tip.

common RPV with nozzles are selected for analysis in conditions controlled by KI and T-stress are applied on
this article. According to the symmetry of the structure, the MBL model. The displacement field load applied
a one-fourth 3D model for the RPV with nozzle is mod- on the edge of the model can be expressed as
eling by FE software ABAQUS. A 3D 20-node reduced rffiffiffiffiffiffi  
integration element is selected. Figure 3 shows the mesh 1+n r u
u1 ðr, uÞ = KI cos ð3  4n  cos uÞ
including the crack. In order to more accurately reflect E 2p 2
the change of the stress field at the crack tip, the mesh 1  n2
of the crack tip is refined. It should be noted that the +T r cos u
Erffiffiffiffiffiffi ð7Þ
absolute value of Weibull stress for elastic materials  
1+n r u
depends on the notch radius which can result in varied u2 ðr, uÞ = KI sin ð3  4n  cos uÞ
stress field.26 However, for elastic–plastic materials, E 2p 2
2
there is no significant difference in the stress field near 1+n
+T r sin u
the crack tip which is surrounded by a local plastic E
zone. This initial root radius could facilitate the numer-
where E is the elastic modulus; v is Poisson’s ratio; r
ical convergence at large plastic deformation near the
and u, respectively, represent the location and angle of
crack tip. Therefore, the subsequent derivations use a
distance to the crack tip. The stress intensity factor KJ
notch radius of 3 mm, which is coincident with several
for plane strain could be obtained based on the J-inte-
literature works.27,28
gral value through the
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
MBL model JE
KJ = ð8Þ
The MBL model is usually used to characterize the 1  n2
small-scale yielding condition of cracked models, as
shown in Figure 4. In order to eliminate the singularity
of the crack tip and accelerate the convergence speed of Results and discussion
FE calculation, the crack tip with a notch value of r0 is
set as 3 mm. According to the definition in the litera- RPV nozzle model
ture,17,29 it is set as R=r0 = 106 , where R denotes the To verify the 3D FE model, the stress intensity factor
model maximum radius. Displacement boundary solution of point B at the crack tip in the 3D FE model
Jin et al. 5

Figure 5. Comparison of stress intensity factors of finite Figure 6. KI and T-stress along crack front.
element model.

of the RPV nozzle is compared with the corresponding

stress intensity factor solution in API 579,30 as shown
in Figure 5. It can be found that the results are in good
agreement.
In order to determine the constraint by T-stress, lin-
ear elastic fracture mechanics analysis of the RPV
model with a corner crack is carried out. The stress
intensity factor KI and T-stress are obtained under
internal pressure p = 20 MPa, as shown in Figure 6. It
can be found that the KI values along the crack front
accord with the bathtub curve, but the T-stress along
the crack front displays a reversed trend compared with
the KI values along the crack front. The KI value
reaches the lowest value near the crack center u = 0.5p,
while T-stress has a lower value near the surface points
A and C than that of deep point B. As expected, with
the increase in the T-stress, the constraint increases and
thus the crack center shows higher constraint. Then,
the stress intensity factor reaches the lowest value near
the crack center.
A normalized measure of structural constraint b is
defined by
pffiffiffiffiffiffi
b = T pa=KI
According to the results of linear elastic analysis, the
value of constraint parameter b can be evaluated, which
will be used in MBL model. Elastic–plastic FE analysis
is also carried out to calculate J-integral value, with the
consideration of the plastic effect on the fracture para-
meters. Then, the J-integral value is used to estimate KJ
by equation (8). Figure 7 shows the b values along the
crack front under different pressures for elastic analysis
and elastic–plastic analysis. With the increase in the
pressure, the plastic zone area increases and the differ-
ences of b values between elastic analysis and elastic–
plastic analysis become more distinct.
The Weibull stress computed over the entire peri-
meter of the crack for the RPV model is also calculated
Figure 7. Values of constraint parameter b along crack front.
on the elastic–plastic FE analysis, as shown in Figure 8.
With the increase in the pressure, the Weibull stress
increases and thus the structure will undergo higher failure
probability. The effect of the Weibull modulus m on
Weibull stress is also investigated in Figure 8. As expected,
larger m values give higher Weibull stress, which promote
ð9Þ
strongly the relative contribution of material right at the
peak stress location ahead of the blunting crack front to
the Weibull stress value.12
To construct the relationship between KI-T field and
Weibull stress, pointwise values of the Weibull stress
along the crack front are calculated by dividing the
crack front into 11 segments. Figure 9 shows local
Weibull stress along the crack front with Weibull mod-
ulus m = 15. It can be seen from Figures 8 and 9 that
local Weibull stress at the crack front is the same
as total Weibull stress. With the increase in the pres-
sure, local Weibull stress at the crack front increases.
At the same time, the range of local Weibull stress val-
ues at the crack front is also close to total Weibull stress
value. Therefore, it is possible to use total Weibull
6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
Figure 8. Total Weibull stress versus internal pressure with
different Weibull moduli.
Figure 9. Local Weibull stress along the crack front.
stress and local Weibull stress to characterize geometric
constraints. In addition, as mentioned in the previous
article, there is a similar trend with b values along the
(a)
Figure 10. Weibull stress estimated by MBL model: (a) point A and (b) point B.
crack front, which indicates that it is suitable to charac-
terize geometry constraint by Weibull stress.
MBL model
According to the values of constraint parameter b, the
displacement boundary conditions controlled by KI
and T-stress are applied on the MBL model. Figure 10
shows the Weibull stress for different points. It can be
found that under the condition of Weibull modulus
m = 10, 15, and 20, the results of MBL model can bet-
ter predict the Weibull stress value of RPV, where the
maximum error does not exceed 2%. Therefore, the
MBL model can be applied to the Weibull stress pre-
diction of the RPV nozzle with crack under internal
pressure.
Conclusion
In accordance with the requirement of probabilistic
fracture mechanics, Weibull stress in local approach to
fracture is analyzed with the consideration of constraint
effect for the corner crack in RPV nozzle. Stress inten-
sity factors and T-stress are evaluated by 3D FE models
with crack. Total and local Weibull stress along the
crack tip is computed by 3D crack models. The MBL
model with plastic correction is developed for a corner
crack in the RPV nozzle. For the case employed in the
study, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1. According to the FE analysis of 3D crack
model, the crack surface points show lower T-
stress and higher values of stress intensity fac-
tor, which indicates constraint loss. With the
increase in the pressure, the plastic zone area
increases and the constraint differences between
elastic analysis and elastic–plastic analysis
become more distinct.
(b)
Jin et al.
2. Local Weibull stress is defined by dividing the
crack front into several segments which can be
used to construct the relationship between KI-T
field and Weibull stress. It shows that there is a
similar trend with constraints characterized by
T-stress along the crack front, which indicates
that it is suitable to characterize geometry con-
straint by local Weibull stress.
3. Under the KI-T fields along the crack front from
3D crack model, a 2D crack model based on
MBL model is proposed to predict the Weibull
stress. The results show that the proposed model
can effectively predict the Weibull stress to sim-
plify the Weibull stress calculation process of
complex structures.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article: The authors are grateful to the support from the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos
51605435 and 11602219) and Natural Science Foundation of
Zhejiang Province (No. LQ16A020004).
ORCID iD
Yuebing Li https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3702-8245
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