Numerical simulation of creep rupture of a reactor pressure vessel in a severe hypothetical accident needs to perfectly take account of interactions between creep phenomena and damage. The continuous damage theory enables to formulate models strongly coupling elasto-visco-plasticity and damage. Such models have been implemented in various computer codes and, in particular, in ASTER at Electricite´ de France, CASTEM 2000 at Commissariat a` l’Energie Atomique and SYSTUS+® at SYSTUS International. The objective of this paper is to present briefly a validation study of the three different numerical implementations and to compare the coupled approach to an uncoupled one on an example of a cylinder of the program “RUPTHER,” under internal pressure and heated to a temperature of 700°C. [S0094-9930(00)01004-0]

Issue Section:
Technical Papers
Keywords:
creep, pressure vessels, accidents, 1/f noise, fission reactor accidents
Topics:
Creep, Damage, Stress, Temperature, Accidents, Rupture
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Copyright © 2000
 by ASME
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