Ductile-brittle transition temperatures for the reactor pressure vessel(RPV) steels were determined using a small punch(SP) test and compared to the results from the Charpy impact test and fracture toughness test using a pre-cracked Charpy V-notched(P...
Ductile-brittle transition temperatures for the reactor pressure vessel(RPV) steels were determined using a small punch(SP) test and compared to the results from the Charpy impact test and fracture toughness test using a pre-cracked Charpy V-notched(PCVN) specimen in accordance with ASTM E 1921. The correlation between the transition temperatures from the SP test and standard specimen tests was investigated on the theoretical bases regarding the local criteria for cleavage fracture for different specimen geometries and loading conditions. SP test was performed for the seven conventional RPV steels in the temperature range of RT to -196℃. The samples were taken from 1/4T location of the vessels and machined into 10×10×0.5㎜ dimension. SP transition temperature (T<SUB>sp</SUB>) determined at the middle of upper and lower SP energies showed a good correlation with Charpy index temperature, T<SUB>41J</SUB>ㆍFurthermore, it was found that the T<SUB>sp</SUB> had a meaningful correlation with T<SUB>o</SUB> value from the PCVN test. The finite element(FE) calculation for the SP and PCVN test specimens gave a clue to the correlation. Fracture in SP specimen occurred at the highest stress and strain location and the local fracture stress at the cleavage initiation location for SP specimens showed a linear relationship with that for PCVN specimens in the transition region.