Investigation on ultimate strength of thin wall tee pipe for sodium cooled fast reactor under seismic loading

Abstract

It is important to investigate the failure mode and ultimate strength of piping components in order to evaluate the seismic integrity of piping. Many failure tests of thick wall and high pressure piping for Light Water Reactors (LWRs) have been conducted, and the results suggest that the failure mode that should be considered in the design of a thick wall piping for LWRs under seismic loading is low cycle fatigue. On the other hand, Sodium cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs) is thin wall when compared to LWRs piping. Failure tests of a thin wall piping are necessary because past failure tests for LWRs piping are not enough to discuss failure behavior of a thin wall piping. Therefore, this present work investigated the failure mode and the ultimate strength of thin wall tees.