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The of wall thickness criterion which has been used as a plugging rule is applicable only to a single cracked steam generator tubes. In the previous studies performed by authors, several failure prediction models were introduced to estimate the plastic collapse pressures of steam generator tubes containing collinear or parallel two adjacent axial through-wall cracks. The objective of this study is to examine the failure prediction models and propose optimum ones for non-aligned two axial through-wall cracks in steam generator tubes. In order to determine the optimum ones, a series of plastic collapse tests and finite element analyses were carried out for steam generator tubes with two machined non-aligned axial through-wall cracks. Thereby, either the plastic zone contact model or COD based model was selected as the optimum one according to axial distance between two clacks. Finally, the optimum failure prediction model was used to demonstrate the conservatism of flaw characterization rules for various multiple flaws according to ASME code.

The 40\% of wall thickness criterion which has been used as a plugging rule of steam generator tubes is applicable only to a single cracked tube. In the previous studies performed by authors, several global failure prediction models were introduced to estimate the failure loads of steam generator tubes containing two adjacent parallel axial through-wall cracks. These models were applied for thin plates with two parallel cracks and the COD base model was selected as the optimum one. The objective of this study is to verify the applicability of the proposed optimum global failure prediction model for real steam generator tubes with two parallel axial through-wall cracks. For the sake of this, a series of plastic collapse tests and finite element analyses have been carried out fur the steam generator tubes with two machined parallel axial through-wall cracks. Thereby, it was proven that the proposed optimum failure prediction model can be used as the best one to estimate the failure load quite well. Also, interaction effects between two adjacent cracks were assessed through additional finite element analyses to investigate the effect on the global failure behavior.

It is commonly requested that the steam generator tubes wall-thinned in excess of 40% should be plugged. However, the plugging criterion is known to be too conservative for some locations and types of defects and its application is limited to a single crack in spite of the fact that the occurrence of multiple through-wall cracks is more common in general. The objective of this research is to propose the optimum failure prediction models for two adjacent through-wall cracks in steam generator tubes. The conservatism of the present plugging criteria was reviewed using the existing failure prediction models for a single crack, and six new failure prediction models for multiple through-wall cracks have been introduced. Then, in order to determine the optimum ones among these new local or global failure prediction models, a series of plastic collapse tests and corresponding finite element analyses for two adjacent through-wall cracks in thin plate were carried out. Thereby, the reaction force model, plastic zone contact model and COD (Crack-Opening Displacement) base model were selected as the optimum ones for assessment of steam generator tubes with multiple through-wall cracks. The selected optimum failure prediction models, finally, were used to estimate the coalescence pressure of two adjacent through-wall cracks in steam generator tubes.

Until now, the 40% of wall thickness criterion, which is generally used for the plugging of steam generator tubes, has been applied only to a single cracked geometry. In the previous study by the authors, a total number of 9 local failure prediction models were introduced to estimate the coalescence load of two collinear through-wall cracks and, then, the reaction force model and plastic zone contact model were selected as the optimum ones. The objective of this study is to estimate the coalescence load of two collinear through-wall cracks in steam generator tube by using the optimum local failure prediction models. In order to investigate the applicability of the optimum local failure prediction models, a series of plastic collapse tests and corresponding finite element analyses for two collinear through-wall cracks in steam generator tube were carried out. Thereby, the applicability of the optimum local failure prediction models was verified and, finally, a coalescence evaluation diagram which can be used to determine whether the adjacent cracks detected by NDE coalesce or not has been developed.