Application of the Master Curve Approach for the Irradiation Embrittlement Evaluation of Pressure Vessels Steels

The Master Curve (MC) approach and the associated reference temperature, T0, as defined in the test standard ASTM E1921, is rapidly moving from the research laboratory to application in integrity assessment of components and structures. T0 is the index temperature for the universal MC, which considers the behaviour of a specific material. “The Structural Integrity Assessment Procedures for European Industry” (SINTAP) contain a MC extension for analysing the fracture behaviour shown by inhomogeneous ferritic steels statistically. This paper presents the application of the MC approach to the T0 determination of different types of Russian WWER-type reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels. In addition the SINTAP-MC approach was applied to determine an alternative reference temperature, TR.
The influence of different microstructures and compositions within one type of RPV steel and the effect of irradiation with fast neutrons on T0 are experimentally evaluated. In general the MC based T0 is about 72 K below the Charpy V-notch transition temperature related to an impact energy of 48J. The paper demonstrates the application of MC based T0 and TR as an alternative reference temperature for neutron embrittled RPV steels used in the RPV integrity assessment.