UWSpace is currently experiencing technical difficulties resulting from its recent migration to a new version of its software. These technical issues are not affecting the submission and browse features of the site. UWaterloo community members may continue submitting items to UWSpace. We apologize for the inconvenience, and are actively working to resolve these technical issues.
 

Statistical Modeling of Fracture Toughness Data

Thumbnail Image

Files

statistical_modelling_of_fracture_toughness_data.pdf (1.16 MB)

Date

2007-09-25T14:27:34Z

Authors

Prakash, Guru

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Waterloo

Abstract

The fracture toughness of the zirconium alloy (Zr-2.5Nb) is an important parameter in determining the flaw tolerance for operation of pressure tubes in reactor. Fracture toughness data have been generated by performing rising pressure burst tests on sections of pressure tubes removed from operating reactors. The test data were used to generate a lower-bound fracture toughness curve, which is used in defining the operational limits of pressure tubes. The thesis presents a comprehensive statistical analysis of burst test data and develops a multivariate statistical model to relate toughness with material chemistry, mechanical properties, and operational history. The proposed model can be useful in predicting fracture toughness of specific in-service pressure tubes, thereby minimizing conservatism associated with a generic lower bound approach.

Description

Keywords

Fracture, Regression

LC Keywords

Citation

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10012/3293

Collections

Theses
Civil and Environmental Engineering