Report on FY15 Alloy 617 Code Rules Development

Abstract

Due to its strength at very high temperatures, up to 950°C (1742°F), Alloy 617 is the reference construction material for structural components that operate at or near the outlet temperature of the very high temperature gas-cooled reactors. However, the current rules in the ASME Section III, Division 5 Subsection HB, Subpart B for the evaluation of strain limits and creep-fatigue damage using simplified methods based on elastic analysis have been deemed inappropriate for Alloy 617 at temperatures above 650°C (1200°F) (Corum and Brass, Proceedings of ASME 1991 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, PVP-Vol. 215, p.147, ASME, NY, 1991). The rationale for this exclusion is that at higher temperatures it is not feasible to decouple plasticity and creep, which is the basis for the current simplified rules. This temperature, 650°C (1200°F), is well below the temperature range of interest for this material for the high temperature gas-cooled reactors and the very high temperature gas-cooled reactors. The only current alternative is, thus, a full inelastic analysis requiring sophisticated material models that have not yet been formulated and verified. To address these issues, proposed code rules have been developed which are based on the use of elastic-perfectly plastic (EPP) analysis methods applicable to very high temperatures. The proposed rules for strain limits and creep-fatigue evaluation were initially documented in the technical literature (Carter, Jetter and Sham, Proceedings of ASME 2012 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, papers PVP 2012 28082 and PVP 2012 28083, ASME, NY, 2012), and have been recently revised to incorporate comments and simplify their application. Background documents have been developed for these two code cases to support the ASME Code committee approval process. These background documents for the EPP strain limits and creep-fatigue code cases are documented in this report.