METALLIC STRUCTURES SUBJECTED TO CYCLIC LOADINGS - I - INADEQUACY OF THE ELASTIC ANALYSIS FOR THE STEADY-STATE ASSESSMENT

The majority of the design rules for nuclear structures are based on a n analysis in which the material is assumed fully elastic. Caution is generally applied in interpreting the results of this kind of analysis when the structure is subject to significant elastic follow-up phenom enon. In this article the behaviour of two metallic structures made up of 316L stainless steel subjected to cyclic thermomechanical loading has been analysed in order to show more clearly the risk linked to the application of such an analysis. The geometry of the structures was c hosen in order to have the same intensity of the maximum local stress in both structures by elastic analysis. It is shown analytically, expe rimentally and by numerical viscoplastic analyses that their limit sta tes are not the same, which means the inadequacy of the elastic analys is for the considered type of structure. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd . Ail rights reserved.