Failure and leakage through circumferential cracks in steam generator tubing during accident conditions

This paper derives analytical expressions for the burst pressure and crack opening area for PWR steam generator tubes with a single throughwall circum ferential crack when extensive plastic deformation occurs at the crack sect ion. The rest of the tube is assumed to respond either elastically or as an elastic-plastic material obeying power-law hardening. The tubes are assume d to be subjected to internal pressure loading only. Limited elastic-plasti c finite-element analyses were conducted to validate the results. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.