Fatigue design of nuclear class 1 piping considering thermal stratification

In ASME B&PV Code, Section III, Subsection NB-3600, thermal stratification is not taken into account to determine the peak stress intensity range for fatigue design of nuclear class 1 piping. Therefore, the effects of several parameters such as boundary layer thickness, temperature difference, stratification length, wall thickness, inner diameter and material properties on peak temperature and peak stress intensity due to non-linear temperature distribution of thermal stratification in a pipe cross-section are studied through the numerical parametric study. The results of the parametric study are closely examined and consolidated to introduce an additional term into the equation of ASME so that the modified equation can be used to determine the peak stress intensity range due to all loads including thermal stratification.