ASM Failure Analysis Case Histories: Power Generating Equipment
Reactor Cooling Water Expansion Joint Bellows: The Role of the Seam Weld in Fatigue Crack Development
-
Published:2019
Abstract
The secondary cooling water system pressure boundary of Savannah River Site reactors includes expansion joints utilizing a thin-wall bellows. While successfully used for over thirty years, an occasional replacement has been required because of the development of small, circumferential fatigue cracks in a bellows convolute. One such crack was recently shown to have initiated from a weld heat-affected zone liquation microcrack. The crack, initially open to the outer surface of the rolled and seam welded cylindrical bellows section, was closed when cold forming of the convolutes placed the outer surface in residual compression. However, the bellows was placed in...
Sign in
ASM members
Member Sign InS. L. West, D. Z. Nelson, M. R. Louthan, Jr., Reactor Cooling Water Expansion Joint Bellows: The Role of the Seam Weld in Fatigue Crack Development, ASM Failure Analysis Case Histories: Power Generating Equipment, ASM International, 2019, https://doi.org/10.31399/asm.fach.power.c9001682
Download citation file:
Join Failure Analysis Society
The ASM Failure Analysis Society (FAS) is a community where failure analysis professionals from all over the world can learn and grow in their field