LOCAL APPROACH OF THE CHARPY-TEST AT LOW-TEMPERATURE

Charpy V-notch impact testing is widely used in the toughness assessme nt of large forged components, e.g. the pressure vessel for pressurise d water reactors (PWR). At low temperature, A508 Cl.3 nuclear pressure vessel steel fails by cleavage fracture. The results reported here ar e part of both an experimental program and numerical investigations wh ich aim at the establishment of a non-empirical relationship between t he lower shelf Charpy V-notch energy, CVN, and the fracture toughness, K-Ic, of this material. Here, the applicability of the Beremin cleava ge fracture model to the Charpy specimen is demonstrated.