Fracture mechanics characterisation of reactor pressure vessel multi-layer weld metal

•A multi-layer welding seam was characterised by Charpy-V and Master Curve approach.•T-L and T-S oriented Charpy size SE(B) and 1-T-C(T) specimens were tested.•Local reference temperatures T0 were measured and compared with TT41J and HV10.•TT41J and T0 vary through the thickness with a span of 23 K and 40 K, respectively.•The margin terms as stipulated in the ENSI-B01 guide are assessed using the results.

The multi-layer beltline welding seam of the Biblis C reactor pressure vessel was characterized by hardness, tensile, ISO-V impact and fracture toughness testing. The reference temperature, T0, was determined according to the test standard ASTM E1921 at different thickness positions of the multi-layer welding seam. Additionally, the influence of the specimen orientation on the ISO-V ductile-to-brittle transition temperature and T0 was investigated. In contrast to the T-S orientation (crack extension through the thickness) the crack front of the T-L oriented specimens (crack extension in welding direction) penetrates several welding beads. By means of fractographic and metallographic analyses of the fractured surface of fracture mechanics SE(B) specimens was shown that the distribution of the crack initiation sites is not necessarily correlated to the structure of the different welding beads along the crack front. Furthermore, it was found that the scatter of the fracture toughness values at cleavage failure, KJc, determined with T-S specimens is significantly higher than in case of the T-L specimens. T0 values measured at different thickness locations of the multi-layer welding seam vary in a range of about 40 K.The evaluated T0 values are used to determine the reference temperature RTTo for indexing the lower bound curve KIc(T) according to the Regulatory Guide ENSI-B01 for the ageing surveillance of nuclear power plants in Switzerland. It could be shown that the KIc values converted from the KJc values are enveloped by the lower bound curves.