Assessment of thermal fatigue damage caused by local fluid temperature fluctuation (part I: characteristics of constraint and stress caused by thermal striation and stratification)

• The source of the membrane constraint due to local temperature fluctuation was shown.
• Thermal fatigue that occurred at a mixing tee and branched elbow was analyzed.
• Cracking occurrence was reasonably explained by the constraint and stress conditions.

This study was aimed at identifying the constraint conditions under local temperature fluctuation by thermal striping at a mixing tee and by thermal stratification at an elbow pipe branched from the main pipe. Numerical and analytical approaches were made to derive the thermal stress and its fluctuation. It was shown that an inhomogeneous temperature distribution in a straight pipe caused thermal stress due to a membrane constraint even if an external membrane constraint did not act on the pipe. Although the membrane constraint increased the mean stress at the mixing tee, it did not contribute to fluctuation of the thermal stress. On the other hand, the membrane constraint played an important role in the fatigue damage accumulation near the stratification layer of the branched elbow. Based on the constraint and stress conditions analyzed, the characteristics of the cracking observed in actual nuclear power plants were reasonably explained. Namely, at the mixing tee, where thermal crazing has been found, the lack of contribution of the membrane constraint to stress fluctuation caused a stress gradient in the thickness direction and arrested crack growth. On the other hand, at the branched elbow, where axial through-wall cracks have been found, the relatively large hoop stress fluctuation was brought about by movement of the stratified layer together with the membrane constraint even under a relatively low frequency of stress fluctuation.