Thermal fatigue crack growth tests and analyses of thick wall cylinder made of Mod.9Cr-1Mo steel

In Japan, the basic designing works for a demonstration plant of Japan Sodium cooled Fast Reactor (JSFR) are now conducted. JSFR is an advanced loop type reactor concept. To enhance the safety and the economic competitiveness, JSFR employs modified 9% chromium-1% molybdenum (Mod.9Cr-1Mo) steel as a material for coolant pipes and components, because the steel has both excellent high temperature strength and thermal properties. The steel has been standardized as a nuclear material in Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) code in 2012. In JSFR pipes, demonstration of Leak Before Break (LBB) aspect is strongly expected because the safety assessment may be performed on the premise of leak rate where the LBB aspect is assured. Although the authors have already performed a series of thermal fatigue crack growth tests of austenitic stainless steel cylinders (Wakai et al., 2005), crack growth behavior in the structures made of Mod.9Cr-1Mo steel has not been investigated yet. Especially for the welded joints of Mod.9Cr-1Mo steel, “Type-IV” cracking may occur at heat affected zone (HAZ). Therefore, this study performed a series of thermal fatigue crack growth tests of thick wall cylinders made of Mod.9Cr-1Mo steel including welds, to obtain the crack growth data under cyclic thermal transients. The test results were compared to the analytical results obtained from JAEA's simplified methods (Wakai et al., 2005).