Use of Master Curve Technology for Assessing Shallow Flaws in a Reactor Pressure Vessel Material

In the NESC-IV project, an experimental/analytical program was performed to develop validated analysis methods for transferring fracture toughness data to shallow flaws in reactor pressure vessels subject to biaxial loading in the lower-transition temperature region. Within this scope, an extensive range of fracture tests was performed on material removed from a production-quality reactor pressure vessel. The master curve analysis of these data is reported and its application to the assessment of the project feature tests on large beam test pieces is discussed.