Ken-ichi Kobayashi

Influence of Testing Environment and Radius of Die Shoulder on SP Creep Rupture Life

Small Punch, hereinafter designated as SP, creep test has been proposed as a semi destructive testing methodology to examine the residual creep life of high temperature components. Employing low alloy steel, a series of SP creep tests were conducted on disc specimens at 600°C in air and in high vacuum to investigate the influence of oxide scale on the creep rupture life. Thickness of the oxide scale on disc specimens in air increased with the test duration, e.g., about 30μm in thickness after 400 hours. The creep rupture life in air reduced to a half of the life in vacuum due to an increase in the actual stress in the disc thickness. In addition, the magnitude of radius of a lower die shoulder affected the SP creep rupture life. The influence of this radius on the SP creep life was also studied experimentally and numerically. The creep rupture life with the die radius of 0.5mm had twice longer than that with 0.6mm. This fact was also demonstrated by the FE analysis.© 2011 ASME

Creep Crack Growth of P92 Welds

This paper represents creep properties and creep crack growth properties for P92 welds. The CCG tests were carried out using cross-welded compact tension (C (T) specimens at several temperatures. The crack front was located at HAZ region to simulate Type IV crack. Finite element analysis was conducted to simulate multiaxiality in welded joints and compare the experimental results. The constitutive behaviour for these materials is described by a power law creep model.Copyright

Sophisticated Creep-Fatigue Life Estimation Scheme for Pressure Vessel Components Based on Stress Redistribution Locus Concept

High temperature components are operated under cyclic thermal transient. Creep-Fatigue is the most dominant failure mode to be considered in Elevated Temperature Design of these components. Design limit for computed thermal stress is allowed to exceed yielding, because thermal stress is generally regarded as a displacement controlled one. Since creep deformation is considered as additional inelastic behavior, methodology to estimate inelastic strain concentration should be prepared in a design standard. Though inelastic FEM analyses can be applied to calculate inelastic strain concentration magnitude, it is well known that prediction is affected by applied constitutive model. Current design codes recommend to apply elastic FEM and to estimate inelastic strain behavior by simplified method. This paper presents sophisticated technique to estimate inelastic strain behavior based on Stress Redistribution Locus (SRL) method. Applicability of SRL concept is discussed with a help of FEM results for representative components of pressure vessel components such as nozzle, skirt and tube sheet.Copyright

Evaluation of creep crack growth properties of Gr. 92 steel weldment

High Cr ferritic heat resistant steels are used for boiler components in ultra-super critical thermal power plants. In weld components of these steels, Type-IV creep damages formed in the fine-grained heat-affected zone (HAZ), causing their creep strength to decrease at high temperatures. To assist the standardization of the testing method for creep crack growth in weld components, we conducted round robin tests using ASME Grade 92 steel as part of the VAMAS TWA31 collaboration. The CCG tests were carried out using the CT specimen and the circumferentially notched round bar specimen for both the base metal and weld joint of Gr. 92 steel. The effects of specimen configuration, temperature, load and stress triaxiality conditions on the crack initiation and growth properties were investigated.

Evaluation of damage and fracture of high Cr steel welds at elevated temperatures

High Cr ferritic steels have been used in the 600°C class ultra-super critical (USC) thermal power plants. More than a decade has passed from the application of high Cr steels to USC power plants in Japan, and type-IV creep damages in the welded components become concerns. In the present paper, long-term creep tests for the welded joints of the high Cr steels (Gr.91 and Gr.122 steels) were conducted. Microstructures and creep damages in the heat affected zone (HAZ) were investigated using the thick plate specimens. Remaining life assessment methods of high Cr steel welds were discussed based on the experimental results. Further, to assist the standardization of the testing method for creep crack growth in welded joints, we have conducted the round robin tests using the high Cr steels (Gr.91 and Gr.92 steels) and their welds as part of the VAMAS TWA31 collaboration.

Creep crack initiation and growth behavior in weldments of high Cr steels

W added high Cr ferritic heat-resistant steels have been developed as a boiler material. Most of boiler component structures are mainly fabricated by welding which are likely to the regions of crack initiation and propagation. However, the method of predicting the life of creep crack initiation and growth have not been clearly established for weldments of high Cr ferritic heat resistant material due to many factors such as the variation in micro-structures and the residual stress caused by welding and thermal cycles. In the present study, the experiments of creep crack growth using a circular notched round bar specimen with variation of notch location in HAZ were conducted and the characteristics of creep crack growth rate and creep crack initiation life were summarized in terms of Q ∗ parameter, which has been proposed as fracture mechanics parameter to describe creep crack growth rate.

Creep Damage Evaluation for Fine Grained HAZ of Mod. 9Cr Steels Under Multi-Axial Stress Conditions

This study is concerned with the creep damage evaluation for the fine grained heat affected zone (HAZ) of modified 9Cr steels under multi-axial stress conditions. Circumferentially notched bar creep rupture and interrupted tests have been conducted on the simulated HAZ specimens of modified 9Cr Steels. A metallographic examination has been carried out to quantify creep damage accumulation in the specimens. It has been found from void observation that growth of creep void correlates with maximum principle stress and stress triaxiality factor. Finite element predictions based on ductility exhaustion approach have also been performed to predict the creep rupture time and creep damage in notched specimens. It has been concluded that a ductility exhaustion approach with empirical model provides reasonable life predictability almost in a scatter band of a factor of 2.© 2013 ASME