Prediction of creep failure life of internally pressurised thick walled CrMoV pipes

Creep continuum damage finite element analyses were performed for a typical internally pressurised main steam thick-sectioned plain pipe geometry subj ected to a range of axial loading conditions. The creep failure lives, for a range of loading levels, were obtained. The stress distributions showed t he presence of a skeletal point or representative rupture stress. Life esti mates were made using alternative stress forms and these were compared with the failure lives predicted using continuum damage analyses. For the parti cular ferritic material properties used in the analyses, the failure life o f the pipe can be obtained accurately using the steady-state reference rupt ure stress or the skeletal point rupture stress. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.