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Weibull Modulus of Cleavage Fracture Toughness of Ferritic Steels

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Abstract

The ordinary Weibull distribution function has been commonly accepted for empirical characterization of cleavage fracture toughness of nuclear reactor and containment pressure vessel steels. However, this method lacks a fundamental basis. This work adopts the standardized Weibull distribution function to analyze cleavage fracture toughness of ferritic steels measured from different sized fracture mechanics specimens at different temperatures to estimate the Weibull modulus. The toughness data of five different nuclear reactor and containment vessel steels are analyzed. The estimations obtained the Weibull modulus (m) in the range of 1.83 to 2.55 and strong temperature dependence of the threshold cleavage fracture toughness Kmin, as opposed to the constant values of mK = 4 and Kmin = 20 MPam1/2 given in ASTM E1921-19. The goodness of fit test by the one-sample Kolmogorov–Smirnov (K–S) test validated Weibull distribution function for describing the toughness distribution.

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Acknowledgments

GQ is grateful to the funding of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11872364, 11932020) and Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) Pioneer Hundred Talents Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, 333 Long Teng Rd, Shanghai, 201620, P.R. China

    W.-S. Lei, Z. Yu & P. Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Mechanics (LNM), Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P.R. China

    G. Qian

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  1. W.-S. Lei
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Correspondence to W.-S. Lei, G. Qian, Z. Yu or P. Zhang.

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Manuscript submitted October 4, 2020, accepted January 28, 2021.

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Lei, WS., Qian, G., Yu, Z. et al. Weibull Modulus of Cleavage Fracture Toughness of Ferritic Steels. Metall Mater Trans A 52, 1503–1515 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-021-06169-w

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