PRESENT STATUS OF THE FRACTESUS PROJECT: ROUND ROBIN ON UNIRRADIATED MATERIALS

The present contribution provides a summary of the inter-laboratory round robin on the fracture toughness testing and Master Curve application of unirradiated materials. First, a benchmark was performed on the analysis of a given load displacement curve. Then, a benchmark was performed on the application of the Master Curve procedure on a given data set of fracture toughness results. Finally, the preliminary results of the Master Curve application on MCT specimens by 13 different labs on six different materials (four base and two welds) are presented. The benchmark on fracture toughness data evaluation showed the need for a uniform conversion from front face displacement to load line displacement. The benchmark on application of the Master Curve approach to obtain the reference temperature proved the equivalence between the T0TEM software and in-house developed software. The inter-laboratory round robin showed the equivalence between T0 obtained by MCT and larger specimens, except for A533B JRQ and 73W. The reasons for the deviations of A533B JRQ and 73W are under investigation. As a general comment, it can be stated that the results from MCT specimens often lead to inhomogeneous material as compared to the result from larger specimens. This is likely the consequence of the small sampling volume of the MCT specimens.Open access abstract of PVP2023-10544