• K K Vaze

• Numerical simulation with ﬁnite element and artiﬁcial neural network of ball indentation for mechanical property estimation

A combined mechanical property evaluation methodology with ABI (Automated Ball Indentation) simulation and Artiﬁcial Neural Network (ANN) analysis is evolved to evaluate the mechanical properties for Carbon Manganese Steel (SA-333 Grade-6) and Stainless Steel (SS-304LN). The experimental load deﬂection data is converted into meaningful mechanical properties for these materials and their evaluated property is veriﬁed with experimental tensile specimen results. An ANN database is generated with the help of contact type ﬁnite element analysis by numerically simulating the ABI process for various magnitudes of yield strength $(\sigma_{yp})$ (200 MPa–400 MPa) with a range of strain hardening exponent (n) (0.05–0.5)\$and strength coefﬁcient (K) (600 MPa–1600 MPa). For the present problem, a ball indenter of 1.57 mm diameter having Young’s modulus higher than test piece is used to minimize the error due to indenter deformation. Test piece dimension is kept large enough in comparison to the indenter conﬁguration in the simulation to minimize the deﬂection at the outer edge of the test piece. Further, this database after the neural network training; is used to analyse measured material properties of different test pieces. The ANN predictions are reconﬁrmed with contact type ﬁnite element analysis for an arbitrary selected test sample. The methodology evolved in this work can be extended to predict material properties for any irradiated nuclear material in the service. Extensions of the ABI tests and the associated database analysis could lead to evaluation of the indentation energy to fracture needed for the structural integrity assessment of aged components.

• Safety features in nuclear power plants to eliminate the need of emergency planning in public domain

Following the Fukushima accident, the safety features of Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) are being re-examined worldwide including India to demonstrate capabilities to cope with severe accidents. In order to restore public confidence and support for nuclear power, it is felt necessary to design future NPPs with near zero impact outside the plant boundary and thus enabling elimination of emergency planning in public domain. Authors have identified a set of safety features which are needed to be incorporated in advanced reactors to achieve this goal. These features enabling prevention, termination, mitigation and containment of radioactivity for beyond design basis accidents arising from extreme natural events are essential for achieving the goal of elimination of emergency planning in public domain. Inherent safety characteristics, passive and engineered safety features to achieve these functions are discussed in this paper. Present trends and future developments in this direction are also described briefly.

• Structural integrity aspects of reactor safety

The overall goal of nuclear power plant safety is to protect individuals, society and the environment from undue radiological hazard so that nuclear power production does not significantly add to the health risks to which individuals and society are already exposed. This paper addresses the safety principles followed during the design phase of life cycle of a nuclear power plant. The principles followed such as safety classification, design rules based on failure modes, detailed stress analysis, stress categorization, consideration of design basis events, failure probability, flaw tolerance, leak-before-break are described. Engineering structures always contain flaws, albeit of very small size. Fatigue and fracture are the two important failure modes affected by flaws. Thus flaw tolerance becomes very important. This is assessed by applying fracture mechanics principles. The R6 procedure, which is used for evaluation of structures containing flaws, has been incorporated in the software BARC-R6. Improvements by way of shell-nozzle junction pull-out, adoption of hot wire GTAW with narrow gap technique have been brought out. Post Fukushima incidence, resistance to seismic loading and containment design have assumed great importance. The paper describes these aspects in detail. Regulatory aspects of seismic design regarding siting, Seismic margin assessment, base isolation, retrofitting are the aspects covered under seismic design. Under the action of seismic loading, the piping in a nuclear power plant piping is vulnerable to a phenomenon called ratcheting. The process of seismic margin assessment and consideration of ratchetting has been backed up by a large experimental data. The experiments carried out on structures and piping components form a part of the paper.