Paper
12 May 1995 Dispositioning of indicated defects in reactor piping by use of probablistic fracture mechanics and target reliability values
D. O. Harris, Dilip Dedhia, J. H. Phillips
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Nondestructive evaluations of aging infrastructure provide a powerful means of detecting structural degradation. However, once a defect is detected, there is the problem of dispositioning it, i.e. deciding on the significance of the defect relative to structural integrity. Fracture mechanics procedures can be used to analyze the future behavior of detected defects, thereby providing guidance in run/repair/retire decisions. The purpose of this paper is to provide an example of the use of probabilistic fracture mechanics to predict the failure rate of a 304 stainless steel weldment in a typical boiling water reactor piping system. The weldment is considered to have a crack of an indicated size that has been identified by a nondestructive inspection, and the predicted failure rate is used in dispositioning of the indicated defect. A target reliability is suggested, and run/repair/replace decisions are based on the predicted reliability relative to the target. The results of an example problem are presented to show the suggested procedure. The example problem showed an exceedance of the target failure probability at short time following the inspection.
© (1995) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
D. O. Harris, Dilip Dedhia, and J. H. Phillips "Dispositioning of indicated defects in reactor piping by use of probablistic fracture mechanics and target reliability values", Proc. SPIE 2454, Nondestructive Evaluation of Aging Utilities, (12 May 1995); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.209355
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KEYWORDS
Failure analysis

Mechanics

Reliability

Corrosion

Nondestructive evaluation

Inspection

Defect detection

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