Consistency of fracture assessment criteria for the NESC-1 thermal shock test

In this report, a best estimate analysis of the NESC Spinning Cylinder test is performed and the consistency of the state of the art application of the different fracture parameters and assessments criteria is examined. Direct fracture toughness measurements best describes the fracture behavior of the NESC Spinning Cylinder in the simulated pressurized thermal shock loading. The concept based on the ASME RTNDT reference temperature (either Pellini or Cv test) does not provide consistent description of the NESC1 fracture assessment. In general the fracture mode, i.e. ductile initiation and tearing followed by cleavage event, was successfully estimated by 3D FE based fracture assessment, combined with Master Curve description of fracture toughness