A Finite Element Analysis on Non Destructive Testing for the Measurement of Fracture Toughness of A533 Reactor Pressure Vessel Steel

Fracture toughness is considered as most important parameter in the assessment of structural integrity of aerospace, marine and nuclear applications. Testing for fracture toughness as per ASTM standards are highly cost and time involved. Non destructive, insitu methods can serve to assess parameters which may be correlated to fracture toughness with an understanding of material behaviour. Few of such methods have been reviewed in this paper. An attempt is also made to simulate the material behaviour through non-linear finite element analysis by using ball indentation test and hence to predict the fracture toughness. Published test data on an A533 pressure vessel steel has been utilized to validate the procedure using finite element analysis.