High temperature structural integrity evaluation method and application studies by ASME-NH for the next generation reactor design

The main purpose of this paper is to establish the high temperature structural integrity evaluating procedures for the next generation reactors, which are to be operated at over 500°C and for 60 years. To do this, comparison studies of the high temperature structural design codes and assessment procedures such as the ASME-NH (USA), RCC-MR (France), DDS (Japan), and R5 (UK) are carried out in view of the accumulated inelastic strain and the creep-fatigue damage evaluations. Also the application procedures of the ASME-NH rules with the actual thermal and structural analysis results are described in detail. To overcome the complexity and the engineering costs arising from a real application of the ASME-NH rules by hand, all the procedures established in this study such as the time-dependent primary stress limits, total accumulated creep ratcheting strain limits, and the creep-fatigue damage limits are computerized and implemented into the SIE ASME-NH program. Using this program, the selected high temperature structures subjected to two cycle types are evaluated and the parametric studies for the effects of the time step size, primary load, number of cycles, normal temperature for the creep damage evaluations and the effects of the load history on the creep ratcheting strain calculations are investigated.