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A comparative assessment study is performed for the deterministic fracture mechanics approach of the pressurized thermal shock of a reactor pressure vessel. Round robin problems consisting of two transients and two defects are solved. Their results are compared to suggest some recommendations of best practices and to assure an understanding of the key parameters of this type of approach, which will be helpful not only for the benchmark calculations and results comparisons but also as a part of the knowledge management for the future generation. Seven participants from five organizations solved the problem and their results are compiled in this study.

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In this study, round robin problems for the failure probabilities of a reactor pressure vessel are solved using the probabilistic fracture mechanics code. The flaw distribution and flaw density were modified to incorporate the effects of inspection quality. Then, the impact of the inspection quality and other key parameters on the failure probability was quantitatively evaluated. The results showed that the effect of inspection quality on the failure probability has the same characteristics irrespective of the two quite different transients and the wide range of fluence level. Overall, the various inspection qualities considered in this study resulted in about an order of magnitude difference in failure probability. Additionally, it was found that the effect of warm prestressing on the failure probability depends on the characteristics of the transients.

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