ORNL high-temperature structural design methods development program

Abstract

From joint meeting of the American Nuclear Society and the Atomic Industrial Forum and Nuclear Energy Exhibition; San Francisco, California, USA (11 Nov 1973). A program to develop and evaluate high-temperature structural design methods and criteria for use in the design of Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR) system components is described. Inelastic behaviors of these components under timevarying temperature and load conditions are of primary interest. Time-varying temperature conditions are especially important because, in addition to producing significant changes in material properties, large thermal strains can be induced due to the good heat transfer characteristics of the sodium coolant. The program addresses three major aspects; these are (1) deformation behavior, (2) failure associated with creep rupture, brittle fracture, fatigue, creep-fatigue interactions, and crack propagation, and (3) the establishment of appropriate design criteria. Included in the first category are studies of materials behavior, the development of mathematical analogs, or constitutive equations, to describe the essential features of this behavior, and the development and assessment of structural analysis methods. The materials of interest are types 304 and 316 stainless steel, and temperatures of interest range to 1200 deg F. (auth